Then Other Things Happen
by Eph
Summary: Sequel to 'Sometimes Things Happen'.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: 20th Century Fox (Not me) owns all rights to Predator, Predator 2, and Alien vs. Predator. But I do own the characters in this story.

_I suggest that you read 'Sometimes Things Happen before reading this. It might make things more clear, I'm not entirely sure. :-)_

_First couple chapters are going to be reintroducing the two characters and establishing their personalities, more about their past and yadda, yadda, yadda. The action will indubitably start later on in the story._

She was sitting on her couch with visions of penguins dancing in her head. She was startled out of her reverie when there was a knock on her door. She and her cat both emitted a low growl and she went to the peephole. What she saw disturbed her. There was a man dressed in a dark grey suit, dark sunglasses and a black tie taking up valuable space on her porch. She made a face at him through the peephole accompanied by a collection of hand gestures that weren't in the least bit appropriate then opened the door and gave him a big fake smile.

"I took the blue pill."

He looked at her totally caught off guard and confused by her statement. She saw that look of realization dance onto his face and he laughed.

"We appreciate that very much."

She realized she was still smiling. She put her hand on her mouth and literally wiped the smile off her face.

"So . . .what?"

"Are you Strife?"

She patted herself down and put her hands to her face.

"Why yes I am."

"I'm special agent Gein with the FBI."

Strife smiled cheerily.

"Are you related to Ed Gein?"

He didn't think it was as funny as Strife did and she could tell by the disapproving look he gave her. It was meant to mean 'cooperate or I'll make your life hell'. She stopped smiling and dropped her eyes to the ground and crossed her arms over her chest.

"No, it's just a weird coincidence."

"Coikidink, eh? All right."

She shrugged and glanced at him to silently ask again what he wanted.

"I have a few questions for you."

"I figured so, I didn't think you were here to give me money or flowers."

Strife didn't like this guy, he was too serious. He reminded her a lot of Drok'ti. She suddenly caught herself wondering where old grumpy no pants was these days. The FBI dude as she now dubbed him was looking at her seriously. She smiled at him again.

"What can I do for you today?"

"Sources say that you were seen talking to something in an alley five months ago. Would you care to tell me about that?"

Strife laughed. Apparently this guy didn't know a thing about her and what the people in this city thought of her.

"I was most likely talking to myself Mr. FBI guy."

"Special agent Gein."

"Seriously Mr. FBI guy, everyone around here knows my situation and they've learned to accept it. Except maybe you who is really starting to bum me out."

"What situation?"

"I'm clinically insane."

She said as she smiled warmly at him all the while clenching her jaws and fingers until they hurt.

"Do you have any documentation stating this?"

"Do you mean do I have a get out of the loony bin free card? Yes I do."

He didn't laugh anymore. She didn't want him to now. She didn't like him and was being a little shit to spite him. A cooperative little shit to be exact. She skipped into her room to get the signed documents stating her mental conditions. She handed them to the FBI dude and he started looking through them.

"So why are you here at home then?"

"The next page states that I'm not a threat to society, myself or anyone around me and that I can be free to frolic about as I wish."

He handed the papers back to Strife and looked her over once. She sighed audibly and leaned against the doorway to show him her disinterest in their pathetic exchange of words.

"So you were talking to yourself."

"Probably."

"What do you mean probably?"

"A lot has happened over five months. I don't remember where I was on a particular day at a particular time and what I was discussing with myself."

He took one last look at Strife and smiled at her with that fake smile of his. She wanted to rip his face off and stomp on it. As he turned and walked away Strife made more gestures at him then slammed the door. She started pacing in front of the door glancing sideways at it menacingly as if it had done something to insult her and she was getting ready to bludgeon it.

"Stupid mother fucking god damned authority figures and their stupid heads up their stupid asses."

She suddenly stopped pacing with the ferocity and restlessness of a caged tiger and straightened up.

"I want some Koolaid!"

She bolted into her kitchen and started dancing around while making her Koolaid. Once that was taken care of she cleaned up the kitchen until it was spotless and everything was perfect.

"Much better."

Having discussed her mental state with Mr. FBI douche bag she started thinking of the time before her mental state had irrevocably diminished to where it was at the moment. She had a life back then and friends. She would go places, do things, talk to real people instead of just her cat. She wasn't saying that her cat wasn't a real person or anything, he just rarely answered her and she found that a little frustrating.

She sat on her couch sipping her Koolaid and staring into the past. She sort of missed being clinically not insane. The perks ofbeing insane were great though. You could talk to yourself and people would just say 'oh it's ok, it's just the little insane girl' and move right along. Before she was dubbed as insane she had talked to herself and people would frown at her. So much frowning happened before. Now people react so much differently. They just smile sympathetically.

"That really honks me off! I don't need sympathy!"

She looked at her cat and smiled. Her mind wandered again to Drok'ti. She was curious about where his adventures had taken him. Next time he gets ready to leave, she's going with him. That's if he ever comes back.

"Of course he will! He has to of realized by now that I have his knife."

And she did. He had left so suddenly that morning that he had indeed forgotten his junk. She went to her room and pulled the knife out from under her mattress. It was a little longer than her forearm and very shiny and sharp. She had cut herself on it while stashing it under her mattress. She stared at the knife for a long time thinking about Drok'ti and willing him to return for his knife and to hang out with her. He was after all, her best friend.


	2. Chapter 2

_Yay! I got it done finally! _

Drok'ti sat in his home on Lau'thalus contemplating many things and reliving past hunts. He had so many to think of. The hunt where he went from being unblooded to blooded, his rite of passage, his many hunts on earth. He remembered how his last hunt on earth had almost ended badly.

His thoughts switched over to the girl that had saved his life, his honor and the clans honor. He had nearly been killed and during the fight his wrist computer was destroyed so he wouldn't have had the option of activating the self destruct.

Strife had taken him out of her 'garage' as she had called it and into her house where he would be safer. She mended his wounds and watched over him all night to make sure he was ok. Drok'ti was thankful that he ended up in her hands instead of in the hands of the 'government' on that planet. She didn't tell anyone about him and also saved his life twice.

Drok'ti sat in his chair and was torn between his thoughts. Should he see her again? Should he forget about her completely?

He had a feeling that no matter how hard he tried he wouldn't be able to forget that strange little ooman girl that had saved him and called him handsome. He shook his head and snorted at that. Oomans don't find his race handsome. Of course, oomans don't usually try and save a Yautja either. She was special.

He stood up and snorted again. He was going to get those thoughts out of his head and concentrate on the real reason he needs to go back to Earth. He has to find his knife. If anyone found out that a piece of Yautja equipment was on earth right now he would be in trouble. It wasn't allowed. He made up his mind to go back to earth to that city and find his lost knife. To see if Strife knew anything about it.

A few weeks later he was back on earth. He was trying to remember where Strife lived. He hadn't thought that it would matter when he left those 5 months ago. He made his way across the city to find that creepy girl and his knife. He was walking along the roof of a dwelling when he heard a familiar giggle. He looked across the street and saw Strife. She was hanging upside down from a branch looking right at him. She unwrapped her legs from the branch and let herself down. She waved at him and went into her house.

Drok'ti found this a little unnerving. She wasn't supposed to see him, she wasn't supposed to know he was there, but she did. He jumped down and went into her house. She was nowhere to be found. The door swung shut behind him and suddenly there was weight on his back.

"I knew you would be here soon."

He grabbed the girl's arm and gently pulled her off his back. He held her under her arms out in front of him and snorted at her.

"Don't do that."

"Why not? Did I scare you?"

He shook his head and put her down. She smiled up at him and started bouncing up and down.

"So what are we going to do now that you're back?"

Drok'ti snorted. Strife put her hand to her chin and got a thoughtful look on her face.

"Oh! A snorting contest! I don't know how good I am at snorting."

Drok'ti shook his head and walked past the girl and started to look around her dwelling. He felt her presence right behind him and got uneasy. He turned around to look at her and she just smiled. He went into the living room and lifted up one end of the couch so he could look under it. Strife was right there looking over his shoulder.

"What'cha lookin' for?"

"My knife."

"Oh yeah! I was so happy to see you that I totally forgot."

She whirled around and went into another part of the dwelling. She came back carrying Drok'ti's knife almost triumphantly. She cocked her head to the side and lifted it up to him all while smiling at him.

"I kept it safe for you. I only looked at it a couple times."

"Thank you."

"No problem bid old buddy of mine! So what do you want to do now? We could play a board game! Or we could go drop bricks on people's heads, wait no, that's a bad idea. He might come back."

Drok'ti looked at Strife for a moment. When he realized she wasn't going to offer the information he decided to pry.

"Who?"

"Oh some FBI guy. He wanted to know about you."

Drok'ti grabbed Strife by her throat and held her up in the air roraring in her face. She started coughing.

"What did you tell him?"

Strife started batting at his hand and kicking her feet around. Her foot connected with his chest and he dropped her. She fell on the ground in a heap and he lumbered toward her again. If she said anything he would have to kill her. That would be a big betrayal.

"I told him I was talking to myself! That really hurt! Why did you do that?"

He felt bad suddenly. He sat on the couch and looked at Strife. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs.

"That wasn't very nice."

"Sorry."

Her pouting didn't last very long. She jumped up and flopped down on the couch next to him.

"So how about playing a board game? We have Clue!"

"I wont be here long."

"Aww, why not? I thought you came back to hang out with me."

"I came back for my knife."

He couldn't look at her anymore. She was having a strange effect on him. He didn't like it. He stood up and started walking towards the door. He opened it and walked out. Strife was right behind him.

"What are you doing?"

"I figure we can just as easily play Clue at your house."

He growled at her and shook his head.

"Ok, if you don't want to play clue we can do something else."

"You aren't going with me."

"Of course I am."

"No."

He started walking again. She was still behind him. He swung around and roared at her. She backed up into the door and started pawing for the handle. She found it and ripped the door open. She ran inside and shut the door. Drok'ti heard the locks being engaged and continued his way back to the ship. He got there and left in a big hurry.

As he was on his way home again he kept picturing Strife with tears running down her cheeks wildly pawing for the door handle. He had scared her and he really regretted that now. It wasn't something he should dwell on now. He has his knife and now he can go home and prepare for his next hunt. He would never go back to that city and risk seeing Strife again or her seeing him. He couldn't face her now.


	3. Chapter 3

Strife had locked herself in her room and was sprawled out across her bed.

"He's just like everyone else. No one understands!"

She was still crying from an hour ago when Drok'ti had roared at her, had scared her, had left her there alone. Everyone had left her alone. She should be used to it by now. Even her parents leave her alone all the time because they can't stand being around her. Can't accept her. She threw her pillow and then started punching her bed.

"He isn't my best friend anymore! I don't need him."

She flopped down again and screamed. Her tantrum subsided and she laid there not blinking and hardly breathing. Maybe she didn't mean that. No, he was still her best friend even if he was grumpy and didn't wear pants. She wasn't going to discriminate against him for his lacking apparel. She isn't the fashion police after all. Just another crazy person with a Yautja for a friend.

Her breathing slowed even more along with her heart. This is one of the things that only she could do. She was staring into that other realm where she always ended up when things in this one were going badly. She tried to find Drok'ti to see what he was doing. She pictured him laughing and telling his friends about the freak that had kept his knife from him for 5 months. Imagining that he was being a real butthead she was almost shocked when she saw the real state that he was in.

He was battling with himself. He wasn't happy, wasn't laughing, he was sad. She reached out to touch him but remembered that wasn't how it worked. She could see him, but she couldn't touch him or talk to him. She wanted to tell him that it was all right. Forgiveness was very much in her nature especially when it came to her friends.

Restlessness enveloped her. She slowly got onto her hands and knees and leapt off her bed and started walking towards the front door. She was going to go swing in the park. That always made her feel better.

The sun had gone down long ago and Strife was still sitting on the swing. She was humming the tune to her favorite anime and pondering how they made Cinnamon Toast Crunch taste so good. Suddenly a hand reached around her and covered her mouth. She was drug backwards off the swing kicking and flailing her arms. She bit down on the hand and swung her arm backwards. It connected with someone's throat and Strife started to run as fast as she could. She headed for the trees. She could climb trees better than anyone she knew.

She got to the tree and jumped up on the first branch and hoisted herself to the second one. She was almost to the top when she stopped and watched the man that had disturbed her run by. He was wearing a dark grey suit and a black tie. It was one of those FBI douche bags. She was pretty sure it hadn't been the same guy. She would have been able to sense him if it had been. She climbed down out of the tree and started to run back home. She ran past a tree and hands shot out and grabbed her. She didn't get away this time.

The blindfold was taken away from her eyes and she was looking straight at Mr. FBI douche bag. He smiled at her. She glared at him.

"Hello again Strife."

"Why do you guys always show up everywhere? You're like herpes."

His smile faded and he bent down until he was right in Strife's face.

"You're going to tell me where your friend is."

"I don't have any friends."

"What about the alien that was at your house?"

"Oh him, he's standing right behind you."

The guy swung around and Strife giggled. Agent Gein backhanded her and she stopped laughing.

"I'm being serious. I can make you disappear."

"Ok, sounds like a plan."

"What?"

"I wouldn't mind disappearing."

"You know what I meant by that? Right?"

"Yes, you would kill me and dump my body somewhere. It's all very clear to me. So let's get to it. Sounds like fun."

"You really are insane. I wouldn't just kill you outright. I would make sure that you suffered."

"I can take it."

He got in Strife's face again.

"No, I really don't think you could."

"Um. . .are you going to kiss me?"

"No."

'Then could you back off a little? You're invading my bubble."

He didn't move. He was trying to frighten Strife, but she wasn't frightened by malicious people. She didn't care if he killed her, she didn't care if he tortured her. All that mattered was him not knowing about Drok'ti. That was a secret she would take with her to her grave no matter if it was now or later. Mr. FBI douche bag stood up straight and adjusted his tie.

"If you really want to be like that, then I guess there is no changing that defective mind of yours."

"Maybe you should take a closer look at the situation before you tell me that I am the one with the defective mind. Douche bag."

Strife didn't know if it was her initial statement or the garnish she added to the end of it that caused him to do what he did next. He punched her hard enough in the face that it sent the chair she was tied to toppling over. She listened as the bones in her wrists and hands snapped under the combined weight of her and the chair. She let out a short pained shriek and immediately stopped herself. She would have time to scream later. Something new had her attention. Mr. FBI douche bag was standing over her and in one clenched first he held a small pocket knife. The pain in her head and wrists caused her to pass out for a moment.

The room exploded around her all of a sudden. There was so much panic in the air. She didn't know what was going on and she couldn't see a thing. She heard Mr. FBI douche bag scream in pain. The scream faded so Strife deducted that he had been flung across the room. She wanted to know what was going on. She was hearing so many things all at once. Then suddenly a very familiar noise but she was out again before the recollection came to her.


	4. Chapter 4

He had followed the car that he saw them put Strife in as best as he could. When he lost it he cursed himself and almost gave up. He was running in the direction it went when he spotted one of the men that had taken Strife standing in an alley. He couldn't help but to toy with this ooman for a few moments. He circled him for a few moments. The ooman had drawn his weapon and was looking around. Drok'ti dropped down on the ooman. The ooman only had the chance to get off one shot before Drok'ti impaled him on his wrist blades.

Now was the time to get Strife out of there. Drok'ti ripped the door off the handles and charged into the building. Once the male oomans had seen him they started panicking and shooting everywhere except at him. He laughed at their sad attempts as he started killing them. He used his spear to pin one of them to the wall as he eviscerated another with his knife. An ooman ran at him and tried to hit him with his weapon. Drok'ti shot his arm out and knocked the ooman into the wall where he drove his spear through the ooman's head. He thought he heard Strife's screaming from another room.

He heard a shot and felt a bullet go into his shoulder. He whirled around and jammed his wrist blades through the man's ribcage. He dropped the body and blasted a hole in the wall and charged through it. He didn't want to believe what he saw. There was a man kneeling over Strife. Drok'ti could see blood pooling out from Strife's eyes, or where they had been. He ran full force at the man and slammed into him. The man went flying into the opposite wall. Drok'ti growled at the pathetic ooman. He would very much enjoy killing this one.

He stood towering over the ooman for a moment. He reached down and picked him up by his throat. He slammed him into one wall and then the next. He brought the ooman close to his face and roared as loud as he could then crushed the ooman's neck. He dropped the body and turned around. He has to help Strife now. That's all that matters. He lifted her up and carried her quickly back to his ship.

Once he got her bandaged up he stared down at her. He wanted her to wake up so he could say that he was sorry. He also wanted to know if she was angry with him for roaring at her like he did.

She didn't wake up for a long time. He caught himself pacing the length of the ship and back, glancing down at her then moving on. He did that for a long time. He heard a strange noise outside the ship and turned his head then growled. He looked out the window and saw many ooman males with guns surrounding the ship. He isn't letting them take her back. He quickly started the ship and as the oomans started firing their guns he took off for the stars.

He realized now that he had been such a fool, a cad, an idiot. He couldn't put his pride aside for just a few minutes to tell Strife why she couldn't go with him in a better way. He had to scare her into a panic. He smacked his hand against his forehead and shook his head violently. He growled and grumbled to himself for another few minutes. He heard a quiet voice a few moments later.

"Drok'ti."

He went to Strife's side and looked down at her.

"I can't see you. . ."

"You're eyes. . ."

"What about them?"

"They're gone."

"That explains a lot."

She suddenly sat up and jumped off the cot. She walked forward and tripped over a crate full of medical supplies. She went down hard on her face. Drok'ti grimaced at the noise her head made on impact. He rushed to her side and helped her up.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

"What were you doing?"

"Trying to find my eyes."

Drok'ti snorted and Strife turned her head toward him.

"What? You said they were gone, maybe I can find them."

"The ooman male that took you captive cut them out of your head."

"Oh. . .so he has them?"

"He's dead."

"You killed him?"

Drok'ti nodded, then he realized he would have to speak more to her now that she couldn't see his gestures or the movements of his head.

"Yes."

"Damn. I wanted to be the one to kill him. So my hands and wrists are still broken."

Drok'ti hadn't even thought to check anything else. He had been so busy taking care of her eye sockets. Strife held her hands up. They were both flopped over at strange angles on her wrists and her fingers were twisted around. Strife made a face.

"That's weird, they don't hurt."

"I gave you a painkiller."

"Oh. That must be why then."

She giggled and started to walk again.

"Maybe you should just sit down."

"You're probably right."

Drok'ti picked her up and carried her back to the cot. He sat her down on it and patted her on the head. He took one of her hands and looked at it.

"This is going to hurt."

"I can take it."

He started to set the bones back in place. The corner of Strife's mouth kept twitching. She was trying to act tough. In a strange way he admired her for that. He set it then put it in a cast.

"Next one."

He finished up. She looked like a wreck. He had put a bandage over her eyes so she wouldn't be able to scratch at them, but being that her hands were in one big cast from her wrist up that wasn't going to be a problem.

"I look pretty funny, don't I?"

"You look fine."

Strife smiled for a moment and then she frowned.

"Why did you come back? I thought you hated me."

Drok'ti's chest did a strange fluttering thing and he turned around to get away from . . .from what he didn't know.

"I don't hate you. I went back to say sorry for over reacting like that. It was wrong of me."

"It's ok. You're here now, so everything is cool again."

He didn't think it was cool, he thought it was temperate in the ship. He shook his head and snorted. He would either have to understand what she meant or teach her to speak in a way that wouldn't puzzle him. He looked back at Strife she yawned and flopped down on the cot.

"I think I'm tired now. I never knew getting mutilated would be so energy consuming! Wow!"

Drok'ti listened as her breathing slowed down and she became very still as she was taken into the veil of sleep. He ran his fingers through her hair and then down her back. He knew that this was all his fault. She was mutilated because of him. He grumbled at himself some more then sat down against the wall of the ship and watched Strife sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Strife woke up in excruciating pain. Her head was pounding, her eye sockets were burning and her hands felt like they were being put through a meat grinder. She rolled over onto her back, but couldn't even cry out because the pain was so bad. She started kicking her feet around in hopes to get Drok'ti's attention. She felt his hand on her forehead.

All she could do was whine pitifully and keep kicking her feet around. Drok'ti's hand disappeared from her forehead and she felt him lift up her shirt to expose her stomach. She felt a sudden jab of pain. It was nothing compared to what she was feeling at the moment, just a slight discomfort. Seconds later the pain started to ebb and she could think more clearly.

"I'm afraid."

"It's ok. You're safe. I'm here."

She felt the strange texture of the back of his knuckles caressing her cheek. She smiled and reached her hand out. She felt his hand around her forearm. She was grateful for his contact with her. Drok'ti gently rolled her over. He wrapped his arms around her and she relaxed. She decided the best thing to do would be to sleep as much as she could. She let herself drift off again.

The next time she woke up Drok'ti wasn't next to her anymore. She turned her head to the side and reached her arms out. She heard him walk over next to the bed and then felt his arms around her. She was lifted up. She smiled and turned her head towards where she thought Drok'ti's would be.

"You left me."

"Only for a moment."

He sat down with her on his lap. She laid her head on his chest and wondered what the strange whirring noise was.

"What's that noise?"

"What noise?"

"The whirring?"

"We're on my ship."

"Like a space ship?"

"Yes."

"Wow. I didn't know that. I was too preoccupied with other things. So where are we going?"

"We're still in earths orbit."

"Why?"

"Because I didn't want to take you too far from it."

"Why?"

"I didn't think you wanted to leave."

Strife tilted her head up at him and then put her arms up to judge where his face was. She used her forearms to yank his head down towards hers. She felt his breath on her face and realized he wasn't wearing his mask. Of course he wouldn't be. He's on his ship.

"Drok'ti, I hate earth, I hate people. Why do you think I wanted to go with you in the first place? There is nothing for me there."

"Your parents. . ."

"My parents leave me alone any chance they get, and that's all the time. They want nothing to do with me."

She rested her forehead on his chin. She felt his body tense up, but didn't pay much attention to it. She was already formulating her next set of words.

"I have nothing on earth except a few papers that tell me I'm insane and a whole city of people who remind me of it every time they see me. That isn't a very nice thing to live with."

Drok'ti rubbed her back for a moment.

"Then I wont make you go back there."

Strife smiled.

"Good! We can go play Clue at your house!"

Drok'ti snorted.

"Oh yeah, you don't like Clue."

"I don't know what 'Clue' is, but I don't think taking you back to my planet would be a good idea."

"Why not? Would your girlfriend get mad at you for bringing me?"

"I don't have a mate."

"Ok, then why?"

"The clan leader wouldn't be happy."

"So?"

"He might order you and me both to be executed."

"He doesn't sound very nice."

"He just wouldn't understand."

Strife sighed and wondered what his home planet was like. She probably would never know. That didn't matter much to her though since she was with Drok'ti. As long as she was with him she didn't care if she was blind, deaf, mute and didn't have any of her limbs.

Drok'ti stood up and put her down on the cot. She frowned and looked in the direction she heard him go.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to take us somewhere else."

"Ooh, goody. I love new places! What's it like?"

"I think we would be ok to stop on Delos for a while. There isn't much there except the trees and a few life forms."

"Intelligent or instinctual?"

"Both."

"Sounds mysterious."

She listened as Drok'ti snorted. He does that a lot. She wondered if it was just because of her or if it was sort of like a nervous twitch. She had those sometimes and would often send her book flying across the room. Maybe instead of twitching Drok'ti snorted. She started giggling at her own thoughts.

"What's so funny?"

"It's really nothing. Just thinking to myself."

"Oh."

Strife went back to her thoughts careful not to laugh out loud. She didn't want to insult Drok'ti and make him roar at her again. She still remembered that very clearly. The primal, frightening way he was standing. It wasn't like him at all, then she realized she didn't know him very well. Maybe that's the way he is. She suddenly became afraid of him. What if she did something wrong and instead of just roaring at her he killed her? She didn't want him to kill her. She wanted to believe that he was her best friend, her bud and that she would be safe around him.

She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She sat there quietly in hopes to keep on Drok'ti's good side. Silence would be her friend for the next while and in it maybe she could manage to keep Drok'ti's friendship.


	6. Chapter 6

After setting the coordinates for Delos, Drok'ti turned around to see why Strife was suddenly so quiet. She had her arms wrapped around her legs and her head resting on her knees. Maybe she was just resting. Maybe she was in pain again. He stood up and walked over to her.

"Are you all right?"

She nodded and put her head back on her knees again.

"You aren't in pain?"

She shook her head. He was confused. This is not the way Strife usually was. She was very talkative and happy most of the time. He put his hand on her shoulder and she jumped. He pulled his hand back and frowned. What is wrong with her? She wasn't in pain, so what was it? Maybe she realized that it was his fault this happened to her and she was angry with him. He went back and sat down in the pilot chair. He cursed himself silently for being so cruel. He ruined her chances of a good life, a normal life. Turning around to look at her he thought of something. She hadn't had a normal life to begin with and he doubted that she would want a normal life. She was so different from anyone or anything he had ever come across in the past.

They landed on Delos a few days later. Strife was still being very quiet and withdrawn. Drok'ti came to realize he didn't like this. He had liked the way Strife was when he first woke up to her watching him in her dwelling. She couldn't watch him anymore. His heart sank as he thought of this. He sighed and stood up. Lifting Strife off the cot he felt wetness on his arm where Strife's head rested. He looked down at her and saw tears running down her cheeks.

"Strife."

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I'm fine."

He took her outside and sat her on a log. He stood there and stared at her completely clueless of what to do.

"Something is wrong or else you wouldn't be crying."

"I. . .I. . ."

She dropped her head and put her arms over it. She mumbled something that Drok'ti couldn't quite catch. He grabbed her arms and pulled them down so he could hear her better.

"What?"

"I don't want to make you mad at me."

"Why would I be mad?"

"I don't know. I don't want you to roar at me anymore, so I'm not going to say anything to make you angry."

Drok'ti's mind started screaming at him, but the words weren't clear enough to understand. He shook his head and crouched down in front of Strife. He put his hands to her cheeks and wiped her tears away.

"I didn't mean it."

"Then why did you do it?"

"I didn't know what else to do."

Strife sat there motionless. Drok'ti wished she would smile. He hadn't seen her smile for days. He put his finger on her forehead and poked at it a few times.

"What is going on in there?"

"I don't know."

"Tell me. You can trust me."

"I want to stay with you forever, but in the past I've made you mad. I figure if I don't talk or do anything like myself that you wont leave me."

Drok'ti put his hand on top of Strife's head.

"I swear I will never leave you again."

A faint smile came across Strife's face. Drok'ti poked her in the stomach a few times and Strife started laughing. She put her arms over her stomach.

"That tickles."

Drok'ti kept poking at her until she was in a fit of giggles. She flailed herself backwards off the log and fell on her back. Drok'ti leapt over the log and crouched over her and kept tickling her. He liked this better than her previous state. Strife suddenly jumped up and tackled him. She landed on top of him and her face was very close to his. So many thoughts raced through his mind at that moment. What he wanted to do, what he knew he shouldn't do. He instead justran his fingers through Strife's hair and purred.

"That's a funny noise. You've never done that before."

"I've never had a reason to."

Strife made a funny face and stood up. She started sniffing the air. Drok'ti jumped up and looked around and listened.

"What is it?"

"I smell food."

"Where is it coming from?"

"I'm not sure."

Drok'ti watched as Strife started wandering off sniffing the air. She was about to run into a tree when Drok'ti picked her up and put her on his shoulder.

"I feel tall."

"Where were you going?"

"That way."

Strife held her arm out indicating her planned path. Drok'ti stepped around the tree and walked slowly through the forest.

"That way."

He turned to his left slightly and kept going. He could smell it now.

After about 20 minutes of following Strife's nose they came across a campsite. Drok'ti didn't like the looks of it. He listened as Strife's stomach growled. He didn't keep much food on the ship since he never planned to be on it for very long and he didn't have to eat very often. Strife was probably hungry. He yelled at himself for not thinking of that. He watched as a tell thin grayish colored alien walked out of a tent. It stopped suddenly when it saw Drok'ti.

"Um, hello. I didn't know you were here."

Strife was the one to speak up.

"Do you have food?"

"Of course, make yourselves at home."

Drok'ti sat down on a log and Strife crawled down off his shoulders. She sat next to him. Drok'ti watched as the being walked out with a plate stacked with meat. He set it down in front of Strife and started staring at her.

"I don't mean to be rude, but what happened to you?"

"The FBI."

The being nodded. Apparently he knows about the infamous earth government. Of course, many different races did. That's why they didn't make themselves known on that planet. Strife was trying to figure out the best way to get the food into her mouth. She couldn't pick it up with her hands in this state. The other being took a few steps towards her.

"Let me get that for you."

Drok'ti snorted when he thought the being was going to feed her. Instead the tall figure took her hands in his and a faint white light appeared. It looked sort of like smoke and water to Drok'ti. It gave off intense heat and he thought that it was burning Strife. She didn't seem like she was in pain at all. The being let go of her hands and smiled, then put his hands over her eyes and did the same thing.

"There, much better."

Strife turned towards Drok'ti smiling.

"My hands aren't busted anymore."

Drok'ti cut her casts off and she started flexing her fingers. She got over her sudden use of appendages and went for the food. Drok'ti had never seen anyone eat to ravenously before. Strife scarfed downTwo lbs of meat withinfive minutes. She stopped and smiled.

"That was really good."

"I'm glad you like my cooking. My companions don't seem to care for it much."

"They're just dumb."

The being laughed and sat down on his haunches.

"So what is your name?"

"Me?"

Strife pointed to herself.

"Yes."

"I'm Strife."

"What a lovely name. I am called Alvorus."

Drok'ti almost snarled at Alvorus. He didn't like the way he was being towards Strife. '_you're just jealous you know. You wished that you would have said that to her. You want to be the one complimenting her and making her smile._' Drok'ti shook his head to make the voice stop. He hated that voice.

"Alvorus, that's a funny name."

"I know."

Strife laughed and turned towards Drok'ti.

"Are you not hungry?"

"Not really."

"Oh, ok."

Drok'ti put his hand on Strife's head and patted it.

"I think we should get going. Alvorus probably has things to do."

"Oh, not really."

Strife smiled. Drok'ti spoke up first.

"Well we do."

He picked Strife up and put her back on his shoulder. He nodded a quick thanks to Alvorus and walked off quickly before Strife objected to leaving. They got back to the ship, but Drok'ti didn't take her inside. He instead put her back on that log. He sort of hoped that they could go back to their playing. Strife was so preoccupied with her working hands. She started feeling her nails.

"Wow, I'm going to need to cut those soon."

"Why?"

Strife laughed.

"I don't know. It's just something I used to do. I guess I don't really have a reason to do that anymore."

Drok'ti nodded and put his hand on Strife's cheek. He started purring. Strife smiled an took his hand in both of her own. She nuzzled his hand with her face. He was sort of shocked by this. He sat down next to her and she leaned on him.

"So what are we going to do here?"

"What do you want to do?"

"Well, I have my hands back now."

Strife got a strange look on her face and turned her head from side to side.

"Drok'ti, what does this area look like?"

"There's a thick forest to out left, a lake in front of us and the ship is behind us."

"I thought so."

"What?"

"I can see."

Drok'ti thought it was impossible. Strife turned towards him and he could feel her looking at him.

"This is really weird. Alvorus gave me my sight back."

Strife jumped up and started walking around. She started running around the log. She suddenly tackled Drok'ti and they went tumbling to the ground. Drok'ti grunted as his back collided with the ground. Strife was all smiles.

"This is so cool!"

She grabbed Drok'ti's face and brought her face down very close to his.

"Isn't this cool?"

Drok'ti laid there for a moment. Cool? He didn't understand. He snorted.

"What is cool?"

"Oh. Cool means good."

He laughed. Her strange language was suddenly funny to him.

"What?"

"You're strange."

"Yeah, but you like me."

He watched as she got up and started looking around. He missed the closeness from a moment ago.


	7. Chapter 7

Strife was very excited about her sight being returned to her. She started skipping around the ship and humming. She giggled when she thought to herself that you never really miss something until it was gone. She was thinking about all the situations that phrase could be applied to when she had a realization. That was why Drok'ti had gone back for her. She smiled and peered around the ship at Drok'ti. He was still sitting on the log. She walked over and looked at him smiling. Her thoughts wandered to the situation at present. What should she do first? Climb a tree of course. She hadn't done that in a while. She headed straight for the first tree she spotted. It was a massive one of a genus that was unknown to Strife. She wrapped her hands around the lowestbranch and swung herself up.

"Wee!"

She hoisted herself up to the next branch and kept her ascent at a steady pace. She stopped when she was halfway up the tree and looked down at Drok'ti. He was looking up at her strangely.

"What?"

"Be careful."

"I am careful."

"Not always."

"Shush! I have it all under control buddy boy."

Strife giggled when she heard Drok'ti snort. Funny, funny! She looked around to get a better view of the area. She liked what she saw. Lots of trees, a pretty lake. She turned her head and could see the fire from Alvorus' camp. She stood up to move to the other side of the tree. There was a cracking noise and she froze.

"Uh oh."

The branch snapped and she fell out of the tree. She covered her head, ready for the impact. She landed in a strong pair of arms and looked at Drok'ti.

"Hi."

She giggled. Drok'ti grumbled.

"I told you to be careful."

"I was being careful, it was the tree that wasn't careful."

Drok'ti laughed a little. Strife wrapped her arms around Drok'ti's neck and laid her head on his muscled chest. His heart was beating a little fast at first, then it slowed down to normal again.

"My knight in mesh and no pants."

She burst out giggling when Drok'ti started tickling her. She started wriggling around in his arms trying to stop him. She got hold of his thumb and held it at bay with all her strength. She got the feeling that if Drok'ti wanted to he could still tickle her. He just looked at her and purred. She purred back and nuzzled his neck. His body tensed up again.

"Am I making you nervous?"

"No, of course not."

"Ok. Then why are you all tense?"

She looked in Drok'ti's eyes.

"I just do that sometimes."

Strife kissed Drok'ti's cheek and felt him tense up again.

"Do you like me?"

"You are a good friend."

Strife shook her head at Drok'ti and smiled. She poked his forehead a few times like he had done to her earlier She remembered how she felt earlier, she was so afraid of Drok'ti. She put that out of her mind and focused on the present.

"It's more than that. What's going on in there?"

Drok'ti put her down and started to walk away. She stood there for a few moments contemplating what she might have said to offend Drok'ti. She figured out that it wasn't anything she had done or was doing. It was something in his own mind. She smiled and followed after him. She wants some answers and she's going to get them. Strife walked in and cocked her head to the side. Drok'ti was sitting on the cot with his head in his hands. Strife's nose crinkled up and then she giggled to herself. It felt funny when she did that. She walked over and hopped up onto the cot next to Drok'ti. She put her chin on his shoulder and stared at the side of his head. He lifted his head and looked down at her. She smiled and poked him in the ribs.

"You're going to tell me, you know. I wont leave you alone until you do."

"What if I roar at you?"

"That was just a bluff, you would never actually hurt me."

"How do you know?"

Strife laughed.

"Ok tough guy. Seriously. What's wrong?"

"I've always thought of myself as a loner. I like being by myself, I like to hunt by myself. In the last little while that you've been around I realized that I've come to treasure companionship. Not just any companionship, just yours."

Strife was shocked. That was the longest thing Drok'ti has ever said without her having to pry. She smiled after a minute or two as soon as the information soaked into her head.

"Ok."

"Ok?"

"Yeah, ok. I wont bug you about it anymore."

Strife moved away from Drok'ti and sat there staring at the wall. She could feel Drok'ti's eyes on her. She was trying her hardest not to smile. She bit her lip. Drok'ti let out a very unthreatening roar and tackled her and started tickling her. She was screaming and laughing at the same time. She liked it when Drok'ti tickled her.

"Why you little!"

Drok'ti pinned her down on the cot and loomed over her. She smiled up at him as he stared down at her. He moved his face closer to hers and stayed there. Strife put her hand up and ran it down his cheek. She watched him close his eyes and smiled as she heard him purr. She sat up momentarily and kissed his chin. He opened his eyes and stared down at her. She could tell he was having an internal conflict. She wanted him to just let go of the things that bothered him and be able to be happy. Drok'ti laid down next to her and she wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled his neck. She listened to Drok'ti purr and soon fell asleep there in his arms.

She woke up for a few moments later on and watched Drok'ti. He opened his eyes and smiled at her.

"Are you all right?"

"Yep. Just watching you."

"Why?"

"Because I like to and I can again."

Drok'ti smiled and Strife relaxed again then slowly fell back to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Drok'ti laid there and watched Strife sleep. He was so happy to be here with her. What was he going to do about it? Eventually he had to return to Lau'thalus, but would he risk taking Strife with him? No. He couldn't risk getting her killed for his rash actions. He knew the clan leader wouldn't be happy and would order the girl to be killed right away. Maybe he wouldn't return to Lau'thalus. Bringing on the wrath of the Arbitrators wasn't something he wanted to do either. He would have to think about this for a long time. For now though, he could lay here and sleep next to Strife, exactly where he wanted to be.

Drok'ti woke up the next day when he heard Strife whining. He opened his eyes and didn't see her. He sat up and looked around. She was curled up against the wall on the other side of the ship.

"What's wrong?"

He stood up to go comfort her. She flung her arms out in front of her.

"Stay back!"

He stopped and furrowed his brow ridges.

"What is it?"

"Don't come near me! There's something wrong with me!"

Drok'ti snorted at her. How could he leave her when she was in a state like this? He didn't understand what was happening to her. He didn't listen. He walked over and picked Strife up. She covered her face with her hands and started crying.

"What's wrong? Talk to me!"

He shook her and she looked at him.

"Please, Drok'ti, get away from me. I don't know what is going on, something isn't right. Get as far away from me as you can."

"No, Strife. I'm not going to leave you."

Strife's hands shot out and wrapped around Drok'ti's neck. He snorted and looked at her.

"Drok'ti, get away!"

He felt her grip tighten as she started to choke him. He looked at her. She wasn't hurting him at all physically, but it was hurting his heart that she wanted him to die. Why was she doing this? He let her go and she dropped to the floor. She was crying so hard. He didn't know what to do so he did the only thing he could think to do. He knocked Strife out cold. He stood there for a moment in a daze. What is wrong with Strife and what can he do to help her? He picked her up and took her to Alvorus. He might be able to do something.

Once he was at the camp he roared for Alvorus to come out of the tent. Alvorus strode out and looked at Drok'ti.

"Can I help you?"

"Something is wrong with her."

"What could be wrong?"

"She tried to kill me."

"Really now? I wonder what would cause her to do that."

Drok'ti didn't like the way Alvorus was acting. He was too calm.

"Why did you do this to her?"

Alvorus turned and met Drok'ti's glare.

"Well, the beast has a brain. I did it because I knew you would bring her back here. And if you were to bring her back here then we could capture you."

Drok'ti dropped Strife and extended his wrist blades. He felt a sting in his neck and the world went fuzzy and then very dark.

He didn't know how long he had been out, but when he came about his head felt like it was swimming. He looked around for Strife, but he couldn't find her. Then he remembered. That creature had set him up and captured him. He ran his hands along the door to the cell he was being kept in to try and find a way to get out. There wasn't so much as a draft in the door. He roared and started slamming his fists against it as a man walked past. The man turned to him and said something in a language Drok'ti didn't understand, then typed something into a computer. Drok'ti flared his mandibles at the man as he stepped closer to Drok'ti's pen. Drok'ti slammed all his weight against the door and roared. The man jumped back and Drok'ti would have laughed if he wasn't so angry.

He walked over to the corner of the room and crouched down. He has to get back to Strife and help her. If she wasn't all right he swore he would take vengeance against anyone that got in his way.


	9. Chapter 9

_Strife was wandering around a dark corridor. She could only see a few feet in front of her at a time so it was pretty slow going. She heard a weird bussing noise and saw a door. She opened it and looked in. There was a man hovering over a table with a small machine in his hand. There was another man that Strife recognized as her father laying on the table. His eyes were rolling around in his head. He looked like he was really out of it. Strife watched as the man with the machine started drilling into her father's arm at the shoulder. After a horrid grinding sound of metal on bone the man pulled her father's arm free and tossed it in a pile of body parts. Strife knew she had to get moving, but watcher her father being disfigured was almost worth the consequences of getting caught here._

_She closed the door and kept going down the dark hallway. She heard moaning and spotted another door. Strife opened the door and looked in. She saw a mass of tangled body parts. The moaning got louder. Strife watched as her mother rolled around with 5 or 6 men as they penetrated her every orifice. The men started to look strange to Strife. They turned into demonic creatures and started biting her mother and tearing at her flesh with their claws. Her mother was screaming in agony now as the creatures ate the chunks of flesh they were tearing from her. _

_"Serves her right", Strife muttered under her breath. She had enough of this room and closed the door to be left in complete darkness again. She was starting to get worried that she wouldn't be able to find the room again in time. She had been there a few times before, but everything in this place shifted around from time to time. It was different every time she was here and that pissed her off._

_"I have to find it."_

_Her voice echoed around her for a moment and then faded away. A moment later it came back to her completely distorted and she couldn't understand it. She shook her head and decided not to speak out loud anymore. They might find her and she didn't have time to deal with them_.

_Further into the maze she came across another door. She opened it and looked in. She saw Alvorus hovering in the air in circles around a large pile of food. She got the feeling that it was his fault she was in this place again and that made her very angry at him. Suddenly chains shot out of the walls and the hooks at the ends of them took hold in his flesh. He started screaming as the chains tightened and began to rend his skin free from his bones. 'That's much better' she thought to herself. Now he can stay there forever and die over and over again. She smiled slightly and closed the door to continue her journey._

_She turned a corner and there was more light. She looked around the new corridor. There was still a smell of fresh paint. She had never seen this before in all her travels through here. She could think about it later. Walking faster now that she could see, she felt a little more confident. If there was light in this place then she could get around much faster and there might be a chance that she would find her destination. She turned a corner and stopped. There were two ways she could go. She closed her eyes for a moment and thought carefully. She decided to go right. Right is always right. Or at least she thought so. _

_The hallway seemed to go on forever with no doors or turns or anything. Finally she heard a familiar purr. She looked to her left and saw a door. There was light surrounding the door frame. 'What is this?' She opened the door and saw Drok'ti sitting on a log. She saw herself in his arms. Drok'ti and her were holding each other and purring happily. She looked more closely and saw that they were doing more than just holding each other. They were grinding and she was moaning slightly. Strife closed the door to let them have their privacy and turned to face the corridor again. Walking on further she came to another fork. She went left this time because she didn't want to end up going in a big circle. _

_She was in darkness again. She heard a familiar noise and her heart stopped. She froze and stood there waiting for them to see her. The walls were suddenly aflame and she saw the form of one of the creatures that was after her. It let out a shirll cry of victory and charged at her. She wasn't going to be stopped now. She ran straight for the creature and when it reached out for her she jumped up and kicked it in the face. She hit the ground running as fast as she could. She saw the door, the decorated door that meant salvation, and tried to run faster. The creature's hand got hold of her shirt. She screamed and reached out for the door handle. Only a few more inches and she would be out of here. She was yanked back into the many bony hands of the monster and it started to tear at her clothes. She screamed in fear and panic for a moment or two._

_Her fear subsided to make way for a new emotion she rarely felt in this desolate place of her mind. She got angry. These bastards are always trying to keep her here in her own mind. She looked up into the creatures face and screamed at it. She got her hands up by its face and jammed her thumbs into its eyes. The arms let go and she ran for the door. She got her hand on the doorknob and wrenched the door open._

Strife came to and looked around in panic. No one was around, she was out. She jumped up and looked around. She hated it when she was left alone in the maze of her mind. With all those rooms for the people that had caused her the most pain. She shook her head and pushed the revulsion away from her. Someday she would go back to that place and burn it down. She thought of the room where she saw her and Drok'ti. They were happy, she couldn't very well comdemn them. Something else would have to be done. Those creatures would have to go, then it wouldn't be so bad. As she was thinking about that she remembered.

"Drok'ti?"

She heard a noise to her left and turned to face it. There was a strange looking creature standing there. It had a long snout and small round ears. It walked on all fours and had small hooves. It reminded Strife of a hippo or a tapir, only weirder looking. Strife crinkled her nose at the creature. It just kept on grazing like she was no threat to it. In all reality she wasn't.

"I have to find Drok'ti."

She realized she was in what used to be Alvorus' camp. She turned and ran in the direction she thought she would find the ship. She was almost there when something wrenched her stomach and she fell on her face. She let out a scream and grabbed her stomach, clutching at it with both hands.

"What the fuck?"

She was about to scream again when she felt something coming up her throat. She rolled over and started dry heaving. Suddenly a strange worm came shooting out of her mouth. It was covered in blood. It started to burrow into the ground.

"No you don't!"

She grabbed it and it started twisting around in her hands. She roared and ripped it in two. She studied it for a second. This must have been what was controlling her. She realized that Alvorus had been the one to put it there.

"Mother fucker."

She raced onto the ship and looked at the controls. She had no idea what she was doing. She started pushing random buttons. The door came up and closed. The engine fired up and the ship started to take off. Strife buckled herself up in the chair and concentrated on finding Drok'ti.


	10. Chapter 10

Drok'ti woke up and jumped up. He was still in the damned cage. There was no one in sight. He wanted to know what the hell they were going to do to him and where his equipment was. He growled when the door opened. He didn't know what sort of creature it was that walked in. It was short with stubby legs and long arms. It walked over to the cage and looked at Drok'ti then typed something into a computer. Drok'ti studied the being and it studied him. The being made a strange noise and Drok'ti snorted at it. He turned his back on the creature and crossed his arms over his chest. The being made that noise again and walked out of the room.

Drok'ti sighed and leaned against the wall. He has to get out of here somehow. Whatever these people are planning on doing with him can't be a good thing. And what of Strife? Is she ok? Is she still alive? Do they have her here somewhere? He growled at the thought. He felt that she wasn't here, or even alive anymore.

A few days later Alvorus walked in the room and smiled at Drok'ti. Drok'ti roared.

"Now, now, calm down. I have something for you."

Alvorus hit a button near the cage and a small panel opened up in the door. He threw something into the cage. Drok'ti picked it up. He recognized it as Strife's jacket. He glared at Alvorus.

"What did you do to her?"

"We killed her. There is no point to try to escape. You have nothing to go back to now. With the weapons we copied from yours we will be able to go to Lau'thalus and wipe out the Yautja threat. Your people will all be dead."

Drok'ti let out a livid roar and flung himself against the door over and over again. Alvorus smiled and walked out of the room. Drok'ti dropped to his knees and held Strife's jacket in his hands. He would never see her again. His people were going to be killed because of him. He heard a strange noise outside the room. He ignored it. He was brought some sort of food, but he wasn't going to eat. Everything he had was gone. His weapons, his honor, Strife, his race. All gone.

Drok'ti was deep in thought when someone's head came into view, they were hanging upside down from the ceiling. He looked closer and saw that it was Strife.

"Heya buddy. What's going on?"

He was speechless. Strife flipped down out of the vent she had been hanging from and landed on her feet. She toppled over and fell on her ass. She started giggling. She jumped up and walked to the cage and put her face against the glass. She started sliding her face across the glass.

"What are you doing?"

"This feels funny."

Drok'ti couldn't believe she was here.

"I thought you were dead."

"You didn't conk me on the head that hard."

"Alvorus told me you were dead, he gave me this."

Strife looked at the jacket Drok'ti held in his hand.

"I've been looking for that. Hah."

Strife walked over to a panel with buttons on it. Drok'ti snorted at her.

"I'm going to try to get you out of here."

"How?"

"One of these buttons has to open the door."

Drok'ti flinched as Strife started pushing random buttons in a sporadic order. She hummed while doing that. Drok'ti heard something open in one of the walls and a long mechanical arm with a needle came out and started moving towards him.

"Strife!"

"Oh shit. Hah hah, oops."

She hit some more buttons and the door closed on the arm and it snapped off.

"Son of a. . ."

"Strife."

"What?"

"Maybe you should stop."

"Nonsense. I've got it all under control."

She hit another button and the door started to slide up.

"Bingo!"

Drok'ti walked out of the cage and looked down at Strife. She smiled up at him then jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I told you I'd get you out of there."

Drok'ti wrapped his arm around her and patted her on the head with his free hand.

"Thank you. We have to destroy this place."

"Um. . .do you even know what this place is?"

"No."

"It's a space colony. So if we blow it up we'll be kinda sorta screwed."

"Did you come here in the ship?"

"Yes."

"So we'll get out before it blows up."

"Um. . .ok. Then what?"

"Then we have to get back to Lau'thalus and tell my people that there is a big problem."

"Does it have to do with the weaponry they fashioned after yours?"

"Yes, how did you know about that?"

"Well I was climbing through the ventilation shafts and one of the vents was a little loose so I fell through and landed in a room with a bunch of junk that was like yours."

"Where is it?"

"It's a few rooms down that way."

Strife pointed to her left. Drok'ti put her back on her own two feet and started walking out the door.

"You might want this."

Strife handed Drok'ti his gauntlet with his wrist blades.

"I decided to yoink that when I was in there."

"I don't suppose you grabbed anything else."

"I figured you'd be able to get it yourself after I rescued you."

Drok'ti caught himself smiling. This isn't the time for this. Things had to be taken care of first. They walked towards the door. It opened and Strife peeked her head out to look around while Drok'ti waited. Strife held her hand out and put her thumb up.

"What does that mean?"

Strife looked at her hand and then at Drok'ti.

"It's thumbs up, it means it's all clear."

"Then why not just say it's clear?"

"Because thumbs up is cooler."

Drok'ti shook his head and rolled his eyes. They walked out into the hallway and to the room where Strife had seen the 'junk'. He would have to ask her about that at a better time. They walked in and Drok'ti saw the vent cover on the floor and some blood on the edge of it. He looked at Strife and frowned. She must be cut somewhere. Later, there's time for that later. Strife was twirling a spear rather clumsily. It flipped out of her hand and clattered against the floor.

"Quiet!"

"Sorry."

Drok'ti picked up his armor and the rest of his equipment. He saw several sizes of gauntlets on a table. He picked one up and looked over at Strife who was holding a knife in her hand and staring at it intently.

"Strife, come here."

Strife tossed the knife backwards over her shoulder and walked over to Drok'ti.

"Hold out your arm."

Strife held out her arm without hesitation. At least she's good at following orders. Drok'ti put the gauntlet on her arm and fastened it. Strife looked at it and smiled.

"Wow. . .my own cool arm thingy."

"Do you know what it's for?"

Strife nodded and Drok'ti watched as the blades popped out and went back in.

"Good girl."

After Drok'ti put his armor and attached everything in its proper place he and Strife walked out into the hall again. Drok'ti cloaked himself and Strife giggled.

"What?"

"You're all fuzzy again."

"I'm not fuzzy!"

Drok'ti remembered the first time Strife had called him fuzzy and smiled behind his mask. They came to where the hallway forked left and right.

"Which way?"

"Um. . .I don't know. I think we go left. I was in the ventilation the whole way through this place ya know."

Drok'ti snorted and followed Strife left. She stopped suddenly and laughed to herself.

"Nope, it was the other way."

They changed course and headed to the right.

"Because right is always right."

Drok'ti heard someone coming. He grabbed Strife and ducked into a room. As much as he would like to kill everything in this place he also wanted his people to live. He couldn't risk getting captured again. He didn't have he time to go through and kill these people one by one either. His home could be under attack right now. If they were captured this time Strife would probably be killed. Strife wriggled out of his arms and walked further into the room. Drok'ti was too intent on watching the people walk by to worry too much about what Strife was doing.


	11. Chapter 11

Strife saw a bin of lab coats and walked over to it. She got an idea. Maybe she could disguise herself as one of the scientists and she could get around easier. She put on one of the lab coats and started buttoning it up. She finished and put her hair up in a pony tail then put on a pair of goggles to hide the fact that she didn't have eyes. After grabbing one of the electronic notepads that she had seen one of the scientists carrying around, she put it in her pocket and looked in a mirror. She crinkled her nose at her reflection. She didn't like wearing her hair up it made her feel weird. Her ears and neck felt naked and exposed. She turned around and Drok'ti was looking at her.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going undercover."

"What?"

"It's a disguise."

She smiled when Drok'ti nodded.

"It might work."

"Ok, lets go."

Strife walked out of the room confidently. She walked right past two men in lab coats. They turned to look at her for a moment then went on their way. Strife smiled and restrained herself from jumping for joy. She felt Drok'ti right next to her and saw the shimmery distortedness of his cloaking device. Strife turned a corner and saw Alvorus talking to a weird looking short creature. He reminded Strife of a monkey. She bit her lip not to laugh. She turned to Drok'ti.

"What do we do now?"

"Is that the door to the docking bay?"

Strife nodded.

"What if I kill him? Can I kill him? Would that be ok?"

Strife waited for Drok'ti's answer.

"If you can get close enough to him."

"No problem!"

She turned the corner and started walking. She pulled out the notepad and started typing into it. She kept her head low. She ran into Alvorus.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

Alvorus looked down at her.

"Watch where you're going. Wait a minute."

Strife didn't let him have the total recollection he was about to have. She stabbed the wrist blades into his stomach.

"Damn I missed!"

She pulled them out and stabbed them into his chest. More of his blood spurted all over her. He fell on the ground and writhed in pain.

"That's for trying to control me ass hole!"

She heard a strange noise and looked over. The little monkey man was holding a strange looking gun and it was pointed right at her.

"Don't move."

Strife held her arms up.

"All right, you got me."

Strife smiled as Drok'ti walked up behind the little simian being and jammed his spear into its head. Strife clapped and smiled.

"Yay! That was really fun! I want to kill more stuff."

"Not now."

"Right. We have a mission."

Strife extended her arms and twirled around in a circle then slammed her hand onto the control to open the doors to the docking bay.

"Wee!"

She skipped over to the ship and was about to get on it when she felt a very hot sensation in her arm. She looked down and saw blood pouring out of her arm.

"That's weird."

She looked over and saw Alvorus standing there with a gun in his hand.

"Oh fuck."

"Oh fuck is right. You should make sure that when you try to kill someone they are actually dead."

Strife dropped her arms limply at her sides and looked at the floor.

"Damn. You're right."

"You are going to get away from that ship right now. I am truly grateful that you brought it to me. We can ambush the yautja better that way."

"Why would you want to do that?"

"What?"

"Why kill them? Why not learn from them?"

"Well, because. . ."

Strife watched as he lowered his gun and put his hand to his chin. She got him.

"It seemed like the right thing to do."

"Well, I think that you can learn more from something if it's alive. It might even tell you some really spiffy things if you ask nice enough."

As Strife was talking she was slowly pulling the knife out of her belt that she had taken from the armory. She got it free from her belt and held it behind her back. Alvorus raised the gun again.

"Even so, we can still take captives and study them."

Strife kept shifting her head from Alvorus to the shadows behind him. Alvorus got a strange look on his face and turned around and fired a shot into the shadows. As he did that Strife threw the knife as hard as she could and it embedded itself into the back of Alvorus' head. Strife jumped up and down in celebration for a moment. She then ran at him and jumped on his back and started choking him. He wasn't moving, but she wasn't going to take any chances. She took the knife out of his head and sliced his head clean off. She picked it up by the hair and drop kicked it behind a box. She turned around and looked at Drok'ti. He was standing in the entrance of the ship waiting for her.

"That was smart."

"What was?"

"Pretending I was behind him."

Strife smiled.

"I hoped it would work."

Drok'ti patted her on the head and got the ship ready for take off. Strife took the bloody lab coat off and took her hair down. Yay, no more naked ears! She left the goggles on because she liked the way they felt and they looked like bug eyes. She giggled to herself. She walked over and sat down in the seat that was next to Drok'ti's. She watched as the space colony came into view. Drok'ti pushed a button and bright blue beam shot out of the ship and hit the space colony. It blew up. Strife watched, transfixed as pieces of the structure started floating around in space.

"Wow. That was really cool."

She heard Drok'ti snort and giggled. She looked at her arm and poked at the hole. She could feel the bullet grinding against her bone as she flexed and relaxed her muscle.

"Owie."

Drok'ti looked at her and she knew she was in for it.

"We have to get the bullet out."

"No, I think it's fine."

Drok'ti grabbed her arm and drug her over to the cot. He sat her down on it and Strife sighed as she watched him walk over to the cabinets and started pulling things out.

"Craptastic."

"Stop whining. We have to get that out before it turns septic."

"Naw, It'll be"

Drok'ti growled and Strife shut up. There was no point in her arguing with an 8 ft tall Yautja that could subdue her in a heartbeat. She sat there and waited. Drok'ti walked over with a huge syringe in his hand.

"What's that for?"

"It's the painkiller."

"Oh jeeze."

Strife lifted up her shirt to expose her stomach and cringed as Drok'ti came at her with the needle. She looked away as it jabbed into her stomach.

"Grr."

It was over in a moment. Her arm started feeling a little numb. She watched Drok'ti as he took a strange device and put it in the hole in her arm. She felt a tug and the bullet came out of her arm. Drok'ti grabbed a dish with a strange glowing blue substance in it. Strife was about to ask what it was when it touched her arm and she screamed. It burned so bad.

"Owie, owie, owie, owie!"

She started blowing on it, but that did nothing. She grabbed Drok'ti's wrist and squeezed hard. She felt her nails dig into his wrist.

"Oh fuck! Son of a bitch! Mother fucking god damn! That shit hurts!"

She let go and threw herself backwards and started twitching. The pain subsided and she laid there with a slight tingly sensation in her arm. Drok'ti was staring at her.

"Don't say anything."

"I wasn't going to."

"Ok, good."

Strife sat up slowly and looked at Drok'ti.

"Why?"

"It will help it to heal."

"Oh yeah sure it will. Jeeze."

Strife held up her hand with the palm towards Drok'ti.

"Ok, no more surprises like that, all right?"

"Ok."

"You should warn me when you're going to put lava on my wounds."

"It wasn't lava, whatever that is."

Strife started laughing. Sometimes Drok'ti was really funny. Not knowing what lava was. Everyone on earth knows what lava is. Wait. . .Drok'ti is a yautja. Strife smacked her forehead and shook her head violently. He wouldn't know about things on earth. She jumped up on the cot.

"Oh my god! Zaz!"

"What's a Zaz?"

"Zaz is my cat! I have to go get him! He must miss me terribly."

"What is a cat?"

Strife put her hand over her mouth and looked at Drok'ti.

"Cats are the most wonderful awesome creatures on earth. And mine happens to be one of the best and most wonderful. I have to go get him."

"All right."

Strife smiled and started jumping up and down.

"Yay! I get to rescue my kitty!"


	12. Chapter 12

Drok'ti was thankful for her distraction with her 'cat'. He could drop her off back on earth and go to Lau'thalus and tell the clan about the beings that had captured him and warn them of the attack. He knew that some of the copied weapons had been given out and weren't on the space colony anymore. He set the coordinates for earth and sat back watching Strife as she hopped around spastically and hummed something. He closed his eyes and drifted off.

He was having a strange dream where he saw Strife standing on the edge of a cliff by a waterfall. She turned and looked at him smiling. She turned back to the waterfall and jumped. 'wee'. He ran for the edge of the cliff. He got there and looked down. Strife was nowhere to be seen. He heard a giggle and looked up in the air. Strife suddenly had wings that gave off a beautiful heat pattern and she was flying around doing flips in the air. She got a scared look on her face and flew off. Alvorus suddenly appeared behind him and shoved him off the cliff. The waterfall and lake disappeared and sharp rocks jutted up out of the ground. He put his arms up to cover his face.

His body twitched and he woke up. Strife was sitting on the cot staring down at something. Drok'ti walked over and looked down.

"What is that?"

"It's the computer thingy I yoinked from the colony. There's a lot of pictures of the weapons and bunch of scribbly stuff that looks like it's in Russian, but if I read it as Russian it doesn't make any sense."

"It's Bavarian."

"Bavarian? Like from Bavaria?"

"Bavaros. It's a planet not far from where the space colony was."

"Oh. Hah hah. That's funny."

Drok'ti snorted. He didn't know why it would be funny.

"Do you know how to work those things?"

"Of course I do! I spent most of my time on a computer, they are basically all the same, you just have to get the system down and then you can do anything with them. Well, maybe not fly, but, hah hah, a lot of other things."

Drok'ti remembered his dream and looked at Strife. She just had to mention flying. That dream was just a dream. Alvorus was dead. He had watched Strife behead the bastard. And Strife wouldn't just grow wings suddenly. He decided to forget about the dream. They had never had any relevancy before.

"Drok'ti, do you know how to read Bavarian?"

"No."

"Damn, I guess I'll never know what it says then."

Strife sighed and Drok'ti shrugged his shoulders.Drok'ti returned to his seat to see where they were. They weren't far from earth now. It would only be another day. Drok'ti walked over to the cot and laid down behind Strife. He closed his eyes and drifted off again.

He woke up to Strife straddling his chest and looking down at him. Those goggles gave her a strange appearance. He put his hand on her shoulder and she looked at it. He grinned and gave her a playful shove. She toppled over backwards and landed on the floor. She stood up and looked at him.

"I'm going to get you!"

She came running at Drok'ti and jumped onto the bed. Drok'ti caught her and flipped her over onto her back. She jumped on his back and wrapped her arms around his neck and started to wrench her body side to side.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to make you fall over."

Drok'ti laughed and grabbed Strife by her arm and pulled her off his back. He held her up in air above his head.

"Oh yeah, Mr. big tall tough guy."

She wriggled around violently. Drok'ti lost his grip on her arm and he dropped her. She jumped up and rammed her shoulder into his stomach and started pushing. Drok'ti laughed again. She had the spirit, but lacked the strength. He grabbed the back of her neck and lifted her up again. He held her at eye level and roared in her face. She looked dumbstruck for a moment then she took a deep breath and let out a roar of her own. That sent Drok'ti into a full fledged fit of laughter. He dropped her and sat down on the cot.

"What's so funny?"

"Your roar."

"I thought it was good."

"It was pitiful."

"Well excuse me for not having the lung capacityand voice capabilities of a full grown male yautja."

She stuck her tongue out and made a strange noise. Drok'ti looked at her.

"What was that?"

"It's called a raspberry. It means piss off."

Drok'ti smiled and grabbed Strife's arm. He pulled her onto his lap and ruffled up her hair.

"You're definitely good for a laugh."

Strife bit his hand and laughed when he pulled it away from her mouth. He rolled her onto her back and started tickling her. She started giggling and writhing around. There was a succession of beeps and Drok'ti looked over. He saw earth out of the window of the ship. He carried Strife upside down over to the chair and dropped her on her head into it. He fastened her down and then fastened himself down. He smiled when he felt Strife staring at him. He looked down at her face.

"Um. . .I don't think this is quite right Drok'ti. I mean it could just be me, but I think I should be upright."

"You mean you aren't?"

"Drok'ti!"

He laughed and unfastened her restraints then sat her on her rear and refastened them.

"Better?"

Strife nodded and put her thumb up. 'Thumbs up'. Drok'ti shook his head as they entered earth's atmosphere.

After landing Drok'ti started walking Strife back to her house. He had remembered where it was and could find it easily now. Strife was humming and hopping around in circles around Drok'ti as they walked. He had enough and grabbed her shoulder.

"You're making me dizzy."

Strife giggled and walked calmly next to him. They reached Strife's dwelling and Strife stopped. Drok'ti stopped and looked down at her.

"What is it?"

"There's a light on in my house."

"What does that mean?"

"Someone is home."

"Is that bad?"

"Probably."

Strife sighed loudly.

"I'll be right back."

Strife walked towards her house and disappeared through the doorway. Drokti waited for a few moments. He thought about just leaving and apologizing later. No. He couldn't just leave Strife here without saying goodbye. He owed her an explanation. Maybe she would understand. A few minutes later a light came on in a different room and Drok'ti heard his name. He walked over to the window that Strife was sitting in.

"Is everything all right?"

"Yeah, my parents just got home and had no idea I've been gone."

"Strife, I have to leave."

"What?"

"I have to go to Lau'thalus and tell the clan leader the situation so he can warn the tribe and other tribes."

"Can't I go with you?"

He put his hand on her head.

"I'm afraid not. You would be in great danger there."

"I can deal with it."

Drok'ti smiled.

"I bet you could, but I wouldn't be able to cope if my best friend was killed."

Strife sighed.

"All right, I'll stay here and hold the fort while your gone!"

Drok'ti smiled again. That's the Strife he knows.

"You're coming back, right?"

"Of course. I don't know how long it will be. I'll send you a message on your electronic notepad."

Strife smiled.

"Ok! I never get importantmessages! This is going to be so cool."

"Take this and keep it safe."

Drok'ti handed Strife his knife. Strife looked at him with confusion.

"Why are you leaving this? Wont you need it?"

"I can manage without it. Protect it for me?"

"Yes sir!"

Strife raised her hand to her head. Drok'ti didn't know what this meant, but he laughed anyway.

"You'll hear from me soon."

"Ok."

Strife wrapped her little arms around Drok'ti's neck and hugged him. Drok'ti hugged her and purred. He pulled away from her and patted her on the head.

"Be good."

"I will."

He turned and walked away.


	13. Chapter 13

Strife watched Drok'ti cloak and walk off. She sighed and crawled back in the window. She closed it and flopped onto her bed and stared at the knife. Here she was with it again. She ran her hand down the side of it and sighed again. She put it under her mattress and tromped out of her room to find her cat. She went into the living room. Her father was sitting on the couch opening the mail.

"Daddy, have you seen Zaz?"

He totally ignored her.

"Um. . .hello? Father!"

He looked up at her.

"What?"

"Have you seen Zaz?"

"Nope."

Strife clenched her fists and her teeth.

"Thank you, you are such a big help."

She went into the kitchen to resume her search for her lost kitty. She was looking under the table when her mother walked in the kitchen.

"Hi mother."

"Oh Strife, where did you get those silly glasses?"

"They aren't glasses, they are goggles and they aren't silly. They are highly fashionable."

"Whatever."

Her mother opened the fridge and took out a bottle of wine. She poured herself a glass.

"I see you didn't burn the house down while we were gone."

"Nope. So where were you anyway?"

"We were visiting some friends in Finland."

"Oh, how nice. I bet I would like it there."

"I don't know."

Strife tightened her grip on the back of the chair she was leaning against.

"So have you seen Zaz?"

"I think I saw him in the laundry room."

"Of course!"

Strife straightened up and extended her arms and frolicked into the laundry room. She twirled in the door and turned the light on. She looked in a basket of towels and spotted the fat feline.

"Oh my baby! There you are!"

She picked up her cat and started kissing his forehead.

"My sweet kitty. I haven't seen you for so long!"

Her mother was standing in the doorway watching them.

"Where have you been? Zanzibar?"

"No, I was in space."

"Of course you were. When you get done talking to him you should run to the store and get some more hot sauce we're going to make hot wings tonight."

"Yuck."

"I didn't ask your opinion."

"I need moolah in order to purchase said hot sauce."

Her mother handed Strife her wallet.

"Maybe you could pick up some other things if we need them."

"Of course."

Strife situated her cat on her shoulders and went into her room. She was going to take a shower before she went anywhere. She hadn't changed her clothes in a long time. She put Zaz down on her bed and grabbed some clean clothes out of her drawers.

"Yay! My favorite shirt!"

Her favorite shirt happened to be a tank top with psychotic, evil, red-eyed, squirrel saying 'don't touch my nuts!'. She giggled to herself as she read it. She grabbed a random pair of black baggy pants and trotted into the shower. She got thoroughly clean then got out of the shower. She looked at her wounds in the mirror. Her shoulder was healing up nicely and the scratch on her back from falling out of the vent was looking better. She used some liquid stitches to close it up. She got dressed and brushed out her hair. She hadn't noticed when it got so long. It was nearly to her butt. She felt the ends.

"Eesh, split ends."

She gathered her hair into one hand and cut about an inch off the bottom. She tossed the hair in the trash can and felt the ends.

"Ahh, much better."

She went back into her room and put on her gauntlet. She wasn't going to leave this at home. She put her baggiest hoody on to hide the gauntlet from view. Once she got her shoes on she grabbed her mother's wallet and put it in one of her 13 pockets in these pants. She smacked her forehead.

"Duh!"

She went back into her room to get her backpack. She walked into the living room and looked at her mother.

"I'm going to the store now."

"Here's the list."

Strife took the list and looked at it. Hot sauce, pickles, green olives, condoms. Strife shuddered and gagged. These are the times when she likes to think of that room in her mind maze that her mother is in. She turned and walked out the door. She started whistling as she walked towards the store. It was only a few blocks away, but sometimes a few blocks was too far. She got there unscathed and went about the aisles grabbing things and putting them in the cart she had grabbed on her way in. She got more koolaid because she knew she was out and some more Nesquick because it was really good. She went to the register and the woman working at it scanned the items. Strife hadn't gotten any condoms, she refused to do that no matter what. The lady looked at Strife uneasily. This woman must know Strife by reputation. Strife sighed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"24.85."

Strife handed the woman a 50 and got her change. She put it in her pocket. Her mother wouldn't notice. Strife gathered the things and put them in her backpack outside of the store. She started walking back home. On her way she thought she felt eyes on her. She looked around to try and find the source of her discomfort. She saw a couple older boys leaning against the wall of an old building that had been condemned for as long as Strife could remember. They were staring at her. She decided they weren't any threat. They were just a couple. . .what did Drok'ti call them? Oomans.

"Hah hah, oomans."

Strife now felt like she was being followed. She looked over her shoulder and saw the boys walking a few yards behind her. She smiled to herself and kept walking. They are in for a big surprise if they mess with her. The kind of surprise that Alvorus got. Strife turned onto her street and the boys were still behind her. She looked down and noticed that her shoelace was untied.

"Oh shit."

She knelt down and started to carefully retie her shoelace. It had to look right or else she wasn't happy with it. She heard the boys stop right behind her. She finished tying her shoelace and jumped up, swung around and roared in their faces. They both went sprawling backwards and landed on their asses. Strife lunged towards them and they got up and took off running. Strife smiled to herself.

"That was easy."

She went inside her house and put the perishable items into the fridge. She put her mother's wallet on the counter and took her Nesquick into her room. She laid down on her bed and stared at the ceiling for a while.

She decided to get on her computer to see if there was anything new and exciting on the internet. She took a drink of her nesquick as her computer connected. She decided to check to see if she had any exciting email.

"538 emails! Oh my shit!"

She went through them quickly scanning just the names. Most of them were junk. Strife sighed wearily as she got to the last page of all the junk. Nothing exciting . . .wait a minute. She clicked on one of the emails and opened it. It was an email from someone named Dash.

"Ok."

She started reading it. At first she thought maybe it was just an incognito junk email until she read the next paragraph.

-I know that you've seen it, you've been there. What do you think about it Strife? Is it wondrous? Are we in danger? I must know. I will know. Strife, you will give me the answers I want and you will give them to me soon. You'll know the truth and so shall I. I can't wait until I meet you and see your fear.-

Strife wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out.

"Fear? Fuck that."

She closed the email and turned away from her computer. She glanced at it sideways for a second and then averted her eyes.

"Know the truth? What truth? About Cinnamon Toast Crunch? I don't know about that. Grr. What the fuck?"

She turned her computer off and started messing around with the electronic notepad. She started pushing random buttons. That always works for her in the end. There was a beep and the characters changed into English. Strife jumped up and stared down at it.

"I'm a genius!"

She flopped onto her stomach and started reading through the notes. There was a team of mercenaries sent from the colony the day before Strife had gotten there to rescue Drok'ti. They would be arriving on Lau'thalus three days after rendezvousing with some other ass holes two days from now.

"That's not good."

They would arrive on the planet and use the plasma cannons on the ships to wipe out most of the population, then the mercenaries would go in and capture the survivors. Strife growled at that and closed the notepad.

"I have to tell Drok'ti. He has to know."

Strife jumped up and paced around her room tapping her fingers on her forehead.

"Ok, so how am I supposed to get this valuable information to Drok'ti in time to save him and his planet?"

Strife's shoulders slumped and her head dropped down. She fell to her knees and then onto her side. She focused on Drok'ti. She saw him on the ship. She focused in on wrist computer and got an idea. She jumped up and grabbed the notepad. A device fell out of a small panel that opened up. She looked at it for a second. It was a microphone and earpiece. She hooked it to the notepad. To anyone, even her it would seem she was just pushing in random buttons in a random order, but it was not so.


	14. Chapter 14

Drok'ti heard the beep and looked at his wrist computer. He pushed a button and heard a crackling noise.

"What the?"

"Drok'ti? Can you hear me?"

"Strife? Tell me that isn't you."

"It is."

He heard Strife laugh.

"What is going on?"

"I managed to get the words in the notepad to appear in English. I read through them and I really think you need to know this."

"All right."

"Ok, so the space colony sent out some guys to meet with some other guys."

"Strife!"

"Sorry! Ok, the mercenaries were armed with Yautja weaponry and sent to meet with a special team then go to Lau'thalus. They are going to blast the cities with the plasma cannons they have on their ships and then capture the survivors so they can study them."

"When is this happening?"

"They are supposed to meet in two days."

"Strife, I'm coming back to get you."

"Whay?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, what? Why?"

"I feel that you could be of use. We have to stop those mercenaries before they meet with the other team."

"Um, ok. I'll get ready."

"Meet me in that place you were the night the men from theFBI captured you."

"Roger, over and out."

Drok'ti heard a click as communication was lost. He turned the ship around and headed back to earth as fast as the ship would go. He landed and opened the door. Strife walked onto the ship. She had a strange sack on her back.

"What is that?"

"It's my backpack. I decided that I should be more prepared this time so I brought some more clothes and some beef jerky. Mmm, beef jerky."

Drok'ti watched as a strange animal walked into the ship behind Strife. It started weaving in and out between Strife's ankles.

"What's that?"

"That's Zaz. I decided I didn't want to leave him again so I brought him."

Drok'ti snorted at the idea, but realized he didn't have time to argue. It wouldn't hurt to have it onboard as long as it didn't mess with anything. Strife opened her 'backpack' and took out Drok'ti's knife. She handed it to him.

"Here. You'll need this."

"If you say so."

Drok'ti tucked the knife into it's sheath and looked down at the strange creature that was rubbing against his ankle.

"What is it doing?"

"It, is a he, and his name is Zaz. He wants you to pet him."

"What?"

"Like this."

Drok'ti watched as Strife knelt down and started rubbing under the 'cat's' chin. Drok'ti snorted.

"Now you try."

"What?"

"Come on. He wont bite you, he only bites me and that's only when we get into a fight."

Drok'ti put his hand down and started rubbing Zaz under his chin. He stopped a moment later and looked at Strife. She was smiling very warmly.

"He likes you! That's great!"

She clapped her hands together and bowed her head.

"You've been officially accepted into my club."

"Club?"

Drok'ti got a picture of a wooden battle club with a door and Strife standing in the doorway waving him in. He shook that out of his head when and looked at Strife.

"What's a club?"

"It's a group."

"And what does a club do?"

"Um. . .well. . .I don't know. I've never had anyone else in the club before. Mostly it's just me and Zaz sitting in the window and watching people walk by."

Drok'ti furrowed his brow ridges. That was pointless. He didn't want to sit around.

"I suppose since now there's someone else in the club we could do other things that aren't so . . .monotonous."  
"That would be nice."

"Great!"

Strife pulled a strange bottle out of her backpack and took a cap off it. She put it to her lips and started to drink.

"What is that?"

"It's Nesquick."

"What's nesquick."

"Chocolate milk."

Drok'ti was very lost now. He decided not to ask anymore questions because his brain was already buzzing with confusion. Zaz jumped up onto his lap and stared at him. Drok'ti stared right back. It blinked once and kept staring at him. He was getting uneasy. This thing seemed to be plotting, as he had seen many hard meats do. He looked at Strife. She was repacking her backpack. She turned to look at him.

"So what are we going to do when we find those ships?"

"I don't know yet."

"Will there be killing involved?"

Drok'ti turned away from Strife and looked off. What has he done to her? She's so bloodthirsty, she's becoming so much like him. It pained him to realize that he had changed her and her life all because he decided to pass out in her garage. That seemed like forever ago, but it wasn't. He had managed to turn her life inside out within a matter of months. Strife was suddenly next to him. He slowly turned his head to look at her.

"Something wrong?"

"No. Just thinking."

"About what?"

"Things."

"Be more specific, come on, it's me! You can always talk to me!"

Strife put her hand on top of his head and smiled.

"I'm just thinking about what I've done to you."

"What do you mean?"

"I've ruined your life."

Strife started laughing very hard. Drok'ti frowned.

"What's so funny? I turned you life upside down."

"What life did I have Drok'ti? I was a faceless being amongst other faceless beings. I was just a number, like a barcode. I was a defective one at that. I couldn't be like those other people so they marked me as defective and set me aside. At least out here, with you, I know I'm not faceless, I matter. I'm a person, not just a number."

Drok'ti snorted as Strife hit him on top of the head with the side of her fist.

"So stop being all mopey and realize that even if you did turn my life upside down it's a great improvement from the one that I had before. I'm happy now, there's always something exciting to do, places to go, people to meet and if they fuck with us, people to kill. Out here those laws of earth don't matter and if someone does something unforgivable to me or to you, both of us, I can get revenge."

Drok'ti looked at Strife again. She smiled at him and held her hand in front of her face.

"Now I wont be hearing anymore of this 'I've ruined your life' shizzle. It's not true. Ok?"

"All right."

There was a beep from his wrist computer and he hit a button and heard that crackling again.

"Yes?"

"Where are you?"

It was Drok'ti's brother.

"I'm on my way to take care of something."

"And what would that be?"

"I'm not sure I should tell you. You might tell our sire and he would get angry."

"He wouldn't get angry. . .well, ok, he would. He is worried about you."

"Tell him I'm fine."

Strife suddenly sneezed.

"What was that?"

"It was nothing."

"You are really hiding something aren't you? You need to fess up before our sire gets too worried and sends the arbitrators to bring you back in."

"There is a slight problem, but I'm getting it taken care of."

"What is the problem?"

Drok'ti sighed. He might as well warn them if something went wrong and he didn't make it.

"There are mercenaries on their way to meet with a team that's destination is Lau'thalus and their mission is to destroy the planet and take captives to study."

"How are they going to kill us?"

"With our own technology."

Drok'ti's brother's voice turned very cold then.

"How did they get our technology, brother?"

"I was captured for a short time, but I managed to escape and now I'm going to go get this taken care of. So tell our sire that if I don't succeed he should be on alert and tell the other clans to do the same."

"I hope that you do succeed or you know that your death wont keep our sire from ripping you to shreds over this."

"I know."

"I'll go tell him now. Good luck."

Drok'ti snorted and the connection was closed. Drok'ti looked at Strife. She was staring at him strangely.

"What?"

"Your language is really cool. Why don't you talk like that more?"

"Because you wouldn't understand."

"Hah, good point. So who was that?"

"That was my brother."

"Oh, what did he want?"

"He wanted to know what was going on."

"Did you tell him?"

"Yes."

"Then what did he say?"

Drok'ti sighed. This ooman and her many questions.

"He said he would tell our sire what was going on."

"Who's your sire?"

"Strife, what is with all these questions?"

"I just want to know what's going on."

She shlunked down onto the cot and put her head down.

"It's fine Strife. I just don't know how to answer some of your questions."

"Oh. . .ok. Your sire is the clan leader, isn't he?"

Drok'ti was startled by her revelation. How did she know that?

"Yes."

"Right on, so are you going to be the clan leader next or is your brother?"

"I would be. I am 3 rotations older."

Strife cocked her head to the side.

"Rotations? Is that like years?"

"Could be."

"Cool. So. . .your own sire would have you killed for taking me back to your planet?"

"I don't know. He can sometimes be very strict and doesn't understand much."

"Oh. Oh well. Hey, I think we're here."

"What?"

Drok'ti looked out the window and saw 3 ships ahead of them. They were stopped.

"This must be the rendezvous point."

"Yeah."

Drok'ti looked at Strife.

"Do you have any ideas of what we should do?"

"Yeah. Get me onto one of those ships, I'll crash it into the other one and they'll blow up and oh damn, that wont work. I'll blow up to and that wouldn't be a very happy ending."

Drok'ti snorted.

"What if I went onboard one of the ships and killed everyone and then blasted the other two?"

"How would you work the controls?"

"In the same way I always work controls."

Drok'ti didn't like the plan, but Strife had been right in the past. He owed his life to her, twice now. Drok'ti nodded.

"All right. Now it's just a matter of getting you onto one of the ships."

Strife smiled.

"I think I have an idea. Is there anywhere to hide in here?"

Drok'ti thought about that.

"Yes."

"Where?"

Drok'ti opened up the closet and Strife looked in it.

"Good, All right, get in there."

"What?"

"I'm going to send a distress signal and get them to come get me."

"I. . ."

Strife pushed Drok'ti into the closet grabbed his wrist computer and closed the door.

"No discussion!"

He could faintly see Strife's heat signature through the door.


	15. Thank you

Ok, I have to do something before getting on with the story.

I want to give a huuuuuge, huuuuuge thanks to everyone that's reviewed my stories, I wouldn't be writing if you all hadn't been there to 'cheer me on' in a manner.

Lots of love! Lots of hugs! Thank you so much to Shokogoddess11, Kae'she, Miikaawaadizi, Shadowfax272, Queen of the Red Skittle, and thanks to Chancelor22 for reminding me to put a disclaimer up. Hope I remembered everyone! So now I shall continue with the story.

-Nikto-


	16. Chapter 16

Strife sent out the distress signal and watched as one of the ships seemed to spit out a small craft. She looked around for a moment then dropped on the floor and pretended to be unconscious. Two men walked in. They were dressed in funny outfits. Strife almost laughed, then she remembered she was supposed to be unconscious. The two men looked down at her. One of them checked her pulse.

"She's alive."

"I think we could have a lot of fun with her."

Strife almost gagged. No way buddy. She doesn't do that stuff. That type of fun doesn't thrill her at all. At least not with guys like them.

"We have a mission to think of."

"I know. But why not do her while we wait for the others to arrive?"

"I guess you're right. There would be no harm in it."

Strife laughed silently. How little they know. One of them slung her over his shoulder and she was carried onto a small 2 person craft and taken back to the ship. She was thrown in a room. The two men walked towards the door.

"We'll wait a little while until she's concious again. There's nothing more boring then fucking a dead fish."

They walked out and closed the door. She jumped up and made a face and a few gestures at the door.

"Dead fish. We'll see whose the dead fish when I get done here."

Strife headed straight for the ventilation shaft. She felt the need for haste. Who knows how close those other ass holes are. She was crawling along when she heard voices below her. She looked down a little to the left and saw a group of men sitting at a table. She kept going because she didn't want to get caught up in a fight right now. She needed to blow up those other ships before dealing with the guys on this one.

Strife got to the control room and looked down through the vent and around the room. There was no one in there. Excellent. She pulled the vent free and pushed it aside so she could jump down. She landed on her foot wrong and grabbed it.

"Oh shit."

She fell over and landed hard on her side. She giggled for a split second then remembered this was a time to be serious. She got up and went to the door. She locked it and turned to the control panel. She looked down at it for a few minutes staring at all the buttons. None of them were labled.

"Well that's inconveinient."

She tilted her head to one side and then the next. She suddenly smacked her forehead with her hand.

"It's color coded."

She heard a toilet flush and almost screamed. She leapt behind the chair and waited for the man to come out. He sat down in the chair and Strife put her blades to the man's neck.

"Ok, we're going to remain very calm about this, right?"

He nodded.

"I would suggest to stay quiet, I mean, you could scream all you like, but by the time any of your buddies got in here you'd be very dead and I'd be in a different part of the ship sneaking up on them from behind."

He nodded again. Strife smiled. She wouldn't actually sneak up on them, she would let them know she was there before she actually attacked them. But the way she said it made it sound scarier. At least she thought so.

"All right. Now I want you to turn to face the other two ships that are out there."

Strife watched the order in which he hit the buttons. The ship moved to face the other ships.

"And now I want you to show me the button that fires the cannon."

The man pointed to a small round black button.

"Right on. Now push it."

"What?"

"Push the fucking button."

He pushed the button and Strife heard something power up momentarily and felt the ship shudder as the beam was fired. It went straight through both the ships, ripping them in two. Strife smiled and patted the man on the head.

"Good boy."

"What do you want now?"

"I want you and all of your buddies dead."

The man's jaw dropped in shock, but before he could react Strife punched him in the temple. It would knock him out long enough for her to kill everyone else and get back to Drok'ti. She knew this guy would be killed in the explosion, so she really had no reason to kill him outright. He had listened to her and obeyed her very well so she could give him a few more minutes of his pathetic existence.

She opened the door and there was a man standing there. The element of surprise was favoring Strife just then. She reacted before he did and jammed her wrist blades into his chest. It was a pretty good shot. His body was convulsing as Strife ripped the blades free and let them retract into the gauntlet.

"I love this thing!"

Strife grabbed the man's gun before running down the corridor. She started firing shots at all the men she came across. She was running down a corridor when an arm came out and clothes-lined her. She looked up and there was a tall mean looking man standing there.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Um, that way."

He shook his head and kicked her in the face. Strife rolled into the wall. She scrambled to her feet and ducked as the man tried to punch her in the face. She dodged his foot next, then his fist again.

"I don't have time for this!"

The man's hand connected with her stomach and she dropped to her knees. She looked over at the gun that was out of her reach completely.

"My brother was on one of the other ships you just destroyed."

"Um, sorry."

"You will be."

Strife caught his hand and rammed the wrist blades into the man's side.

"You can join him now."

The man's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell on the ground. Blood was pouring out of his mouth. He was trying to say something, but he couldn't. Strife was trying to pull the blades out of the man's side, but they were stuck pretty good.

"As much as I would love to sit around and chat, I gotta go."

Strife put her foot on his side and wrenched the wrist blades out of his ribcage. They came loose and she stumbled backwards into the wall. After getting her bearings she shook her head and looked down the hallway.

"Ok, no more distractions."

Strife tasted blood in her mouth. She spit it out along with one of her molars.

"Oh well, didn't really need that, I guess. Hah hah."

She got to the docking bay where the small craft was kept and powered it up. She then took out Drok'ti's wrist computer and typed in the self destruct sequence. She didn't know how she knew it, but she needed to know it so she did. She flung it into the docking bay and got on the craft. She flew it out of there and headed back to the ship and back to her pal Drok'ti. She was very close to the ship when the blast from the bomb hit the craft she was in and sent it spinning. Once it stopped she shook the dizziness out of her head and piloted the craft to the docking bay of Drok'ti's ship. She got out and walked into the cabin where Drok'ti was sitting in the pilot chair.

"The ships went boom."

"I saw that."

Drok'ti held his arms out. Strife smiled and ran over and jumped onto his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. She heard him purr.

"So you should probably tell your sire that it's all taken care of."

"Probably."

Strife laid on the cot and stared at the ceiling. Zaz jumped up and started nuzzling her chin.

"Hi kitty."

She wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his stomach.

"I missed you kitty butt."

Strife looked over at Drok'ti. He was talking in his language to someone. She assumed it was his father, er. . .sire. Whatever. Strife started petting Zaz and trying to see if she could understand anything that Drok'ti was saying. She wasn't doing very well. The conversation ended and Drok'ti looked at her.

"What?"

"Nothing. I was just trying to listen to the conversation."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I have no idea what you said or what he said."

"I could teach you."

"Really? You'd do that?"

"Yes."

Strife jumped up and started prancing around. She liked learning new things. It was always really fun. She stopped prancing around and looked at Drok'ti.

"So what did you tell him?"

"I told him that you blew up the ships."

"Ok. And then he said?"

"He said it probably wouldn't be a bad thing if I took you back to Lau'thalus."

"Really? I can go to your planet?"

"But you just have to make sure to avoid most of the clan."

"Why?"

"They would probably try to kill you."

"I'm fine with that."

Strife smiled when Drok'ti snorted.

"Well I'm not."

"This is so cool. I'm going to see a new planet! Yay!"

Strife took out her notebook and started writing in it. She didn't have to worry about anyone reading it now. Drok'ti could only see heat and she doubted any humans would be onboard this ship anytime soon. Even if there were, she had her own codes for things that only she knew so most people would just see a bunch of scribbles and maybe a few Intelligible words, but the context of them wouldn't make any sense. Strife laughed.

"Those dumb-dumbs."

"What?"

Strife smiled and looked at Drok'ti.

"Oh nothing, just thinking aloud."

"Ok."

After writing for about an hour about all the adventures she had had over the last few weeks, she closed her notebook and yawned. She laid down on the cot and curled up into a ball singing the llama song in her head. She laughed to herself about that silly song. Finally Strife drifted off.

She woke up to Drok'ti rubbing her back and purring softly. She could tell he was partially asleep. She rolled over and buried her face in Drok'ti's massive chest. She laid there for a long time listening to Drok'ti's heart thumping in his chest. She finally fell back to sleep and had a strange dream about back home.

Strife jumped up and looked around in panic. Her heart was racing and she was covered in cold sweat.

"What the hell was that?"

She shook her head violently tryingt o get the images out of her head. Strife felt Drok'ti's hand on the top of her head. Her head was turned to the side. She looked at Drok'ti.

"Hi."

"What is wrong with you?"

"Just a bad dream, heh heh."

"Well do your bad dreams have to wake me up?"

"No. I didn't try to wake you up. You did that on your own."

Strife jumped up and walked over to the pilot chair. She sat down and started twirling around in the chair.

"What are you doing now?"

"I'm just going to sit here and spin for a while. I don't think I could go back to sleep if I tried."

"Well do it quietly."

Strife blew a raspberry at him and turned to face the stars. They looked so different when you were close to them. They weren't as mysterious and mystical. Strife put her chin on her hand and stared out at the stars pondering many strange things like velcro and zippers, and what it would be like to have one more arm and hand.

"Can't forget the fingers!"

Drok'ti growled and Strife sighed. She went over to her backpack and took out her electronic notepad. She started playing around with it quietly.


	17. Chapter 17

Drok'ti laid there and stared at the wall for a while. Strife is so loud sometimes. She can't just relax and be at peace. She's always up and about, doing something and making noise. At least she's stopped now. She's just sitting there very quietly like she should.

Drok'ti closed his eyes again and went back to sleep.

When he woke up Zaz was batting at his hair. He sat up, shoved the cat away and looked over at Strife. She was still sitting in the same spot, not moving at all. Drok'ti growled and walked over to her.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

No reply. He reached down and picked her up. She weighed nothing. He looked closer and realized she was totally hollow. This was just a shell. Drok'ti growled and looked around. What is going on? Oomans don't shed their skin. He didn't see anything else on the ship. Where did she go? Did she just evaporate? Drok'ti shook his head and snorted. Oomans don't evaporate either. There must be a logical explanation for this. He looked at the location of the ship. There was a planet not too far off. Maybe something came onboard the ship while he was asleep and took Strife's body and left her shell here. He had to get her back. He was getting really tired of having to go save Strife from things. Maybe someday she'll be able to save herself. Drok'ti got into the craft and went down to the planet. It was uncharted so this should be interesting.

As Drok'ti got out of the craft he was greeted by a strange smell. It set him on edge. If a smell could seem sinister, this one was. Drok'ti activated his shoulder cannon and headed into the dense undergrowth of this strange primordial jungle. He stopped and looked at the trees. They were giving off a strange heat pattern and they seemed to be pulsating. He put his hand on the side of one and felt it pulsating. He drew his hand back quickly and snorted.

This was getting weird already. He was pretty far into the jungle when he saw something approaching him. He growled and readied his shoulder cannon. Something strange walked out of the foliage and stopped to regard Drok'ti. It gave off little heat and had very spindly legs. On it's neck there was a huge pouch that was filled with something Drok'ti didn't care to imagine.

It just looked at him for a moment and then walked into another set of bushes.

"Am I going crazy?"

He continued on his search for his lost companion. Would he ever find her? Did something get her? If so then this was all pointless. He could be back home by now instead of walking through this jungle in search of someone he may never find. He stopped for a moment and looked around. He may not even be going the right way. He might as well give up now and call her lost for good.

Drok'ti stood there and growled at himself. He owes her a lot for what she had done for him. If it weren't for her he would be dead, his whole planet might be destroyed. He decided to continue on for at least a little while longer. Maybe there is intelligent life around somewhere and he could ask them if they had seen Strife. If he didn't find her he knew he would miss her a lot. She had her moments where she was good to be around.

For a while he didn't see anything. He almost thought that maybe Strife did just evaporate and was gone. That's when he saw Strife hanging upside down from a tree. Something was strange about the way she was hanging there by her tail. Her tail? Strife didn't have a tail when he last saw her. Drok'ti walked over and Strife spun herself around and smiled at him.

"Hey buddy. Took ya long enough."

"What are you doing? Where did you get that tail?"

"I don't know. As soon as I got here I started mutating all kinds. You should have seen my toes earlier, luckily I got them back to normal."

Drok'ti didn't bother looking. This was madness.

"We should go."

"I don't think he would like that much. He said he would be right back with something for me. He's giving me a prezzy."

"What's a prezzy?"

"Like a present."

"Who is he?"

"He's. . .well. . .um. . .I'm not sure."

Drok'ti snorted.

"Can you stand on your feet, you're giving me a headache just watching you."

"Ok."

Strife's tail unwrapped from the branch and she fell on her head. Drok'ti cringed slightly. Strife stood up and smiled.

"Heh heh, I'll have to figure out a better way of getting down."

"What is wrong with your hands?"

"Aren't they cool? I always thought I could use another joint in my fingers. Three was never enough."

"It's disturbing."

"It's just me mutating, er. . .the dude said I was evolving. I can't wait until I'm done. It should be really awesome to see what I'm going to turn out as."

"You look strange."

"Well, now my body matches my brain. Weird brain weird body. It makes sense in my head."

"It would."

Drok'ti looked around for a moment at the surrounding area. It was very strange, sort of creepy in a way.

"When did you get here?"

"About two hours ago. It was crazy when I first got here I had gills and an eye in my forehead for a few minutes, but they went away pretty quickly. Dude told me that I can evolve within a few hours as apposed to millions of years."

"Why am I not evolving?"

"Because you are at the last stage of your species evolution."

Drok'ti whirled around and looked at the creature that was standing there. He looked familiar.

"Alvorus! You're dead!"

The being held his hands up.

"I am not the one you call Alvorus. My name is Junayus."

"He's the one that told me he would bring me a prezzy."

Drok'ti watched as Junayus walked over to Strife and handed her something that was wrapped up in a leaf.

"Yay! Prezzies! I love them."

Drok'ti didn't trust this being. He didn't seem right. Drok'ti turned to Strife.

"Strife, we're leaving."

"I'm afraid you can't take her with you. If you take her off the planet before her evolution is complete, she may die."

Drok'ti cast his glare on Strife.

"See, so we should hang around for a while."

She was hanging from the tree branch again. Drok'ti turned to the Alvorus look alike.

"Why should we believe anything you say?"

"The girl already believes me. You should believe me because I am telling the truth."

Drok'ti snorted. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked down. It was Strife's deformed hand.

"He's really a nice guy. At first when he brought me here I thought he was Alvorus too, but he's not."

Drok'ti pulled away from Strife's hand and started walking towards the craft. He had enough of this. It was getting too weird for him here and

"Drok'ti! Where are you going? Hey wait!"

"If you want to stay here, that's fine! I'll just go back to Lau'thalus. Send me a postcard or something."

"Drok'ti! Don't be like that!"

Drok'ti wasn't looking, or else he would have seen the next stage of evolution that Strife went through. He was also too caught up in his anger to notice Strife coming after him.


	18. Chapter 18

Strife dropped from the tree and landed on her hands and knees. She stood up and started running after Drok'ti, at the same time flapping her wings. Wings? Strife jumped up into the air and flew after Drok'ti. She flew in front of him and landed.

"Stop right there mister!"

She wished she could of seen the look on Drok'ti's face, but he was wearing his mask. His body language was enough for her at that point in time. Strife put her hands on her hips and fluttered up a little, then looked down at Drok'ti.

"Why do you always have to be such an ass hole? You're a big bossy butt! There is something really cool, really exciting and really different happening to me and you just want to take off and not see where this is going? It always has to be about you."

Drok't was silent. Strife took a deep breath and continued. She had a lot to get out of her system before going on with her life.

"Whenever something is going on with you I end up having to drop everything and help you out."

"I came to get you, didn't I?"

"Probably just because I'm useful to you! Because I can get closer to people than you can! Because I have normal vision and because I can fit into most overhead compartments! I'm just a tool to you!"

Drok'ti looked away from Strife and she sighed.

"You need to work out some issues."

Strife waited to hear what she wanted to hear. Maybe Drok'ti would lighten up now that she said all that.

"You're right."

Here it comes. Strife landed on the ground and was in the process of reaching for Drok'ti's hand.

"First issue I need to work out is you!"

Drok'ti pushed past her and walked away. Strife growled at him. She picked up a rock and threw it at him. It missed and bounced off a tree.

"Fine! I never needed you in the first place! Now I see why no one could ever love you!"

As Drok'ti disappeared Strife really regretted saying that. She dropped to her knees and started crying. A few moments later she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Strife, it's ok. It will get better. Just think of what you have to look forward to. Your evolution is going very well and without distractions like him, you can concentrate on learning to use your new powers."

"He said he would teach me how to speak Yautja."

"I'm afraid not everything stays true to their word."

Strife stood up and bit her lip to make herself stop crying.

"Yeah, he's just a butthead. I don't need him anyway."

Strife took a few deep breaths.

"Hey, where did my wings go?"

"They can retract into your back."

"But not my tail?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Oh. How much longer until my evolution is finished?"

"At this rate I believe it will be another hour or so."

"I'm hungry."

"Follow me."

Strife followed Junayus of the edge of the jungle. Strife had to keep changing the way she walked. One minute she would be on her feet, then on her hands and feet. They stopped near a river and Junayus brought Strife a fish.

"Mmm, I love sushi."

Strife took a huge bite and started chewing on it, scales, bones and all. She finished the fish and sighed. Stupid Drok'ti.

"What a butthead."

"You mustn't dwell on it, dear."

"Probably not. No use crying over spilled mitochondria."

"You are a strange one, Strife."

"Yeah, tell me something I don't know."

Strife laid down on her side facing away from Junayus. She was just going to lay here and wait until her evolution was over. She drifted away trying to find Drok'ti again. He was back on the ship already. He was pacing around and grumbling to himself in Yautja. Strife frowned and watched him. He stopped pacing and looked down. Strife followed his gaze. He was staring straight down at Zaz. Strife bolted up.

"Oh my god! I have to get Zaz!"

She jumped up and started running through the jungle.

"Where are you going?"

"To get my cat!"

"How are you going to do that?"

"I'm going to teleport myself onto the ship."

"You can't teleport."

"Then what is the point of being evolved?"

Junayus sighed.

"I will take you there, but I cannot bring you back with me. And I will only take you as soon as you are finished."

Strife roared and dropped to her knees.

"Fucking Hell!"

She punched the tree next to her and it cracked and started spewing purple goo.

"Ew, gross."

She sat there and waited calmly for it to all be over. She felt her bones shift slightly and a weird tingling sensation in her head.

"Why is my head tingly?"

"It's your telekinetic powers. You will learn to control them later."

"Oh, ok."

"Your evolution is complete now. I will take you to the ship."

"Ok."

Strife blinked and she was standing on the ship behind Drok'ti. He was muttering in yautja. She had a feeling that he was saying some really bad stuff about her. She cleared her throat and he turned around and looked down at her.

"What are you doing here?"

"I came to get my cat and then I'm going home."

"Home?"

"Yes, earth, where even the people that were mean to me treated me better than you ever had. And no, I wont be sending you a postcard."

Strife put everything back in her backpack and picked up Zaz.

"Come on kitty. Let's get away from him."

Strife walked towards the back of the ship where the small two person craft was.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm taking _My_ space craft."

She got in and buckled Zaz and herself up.

"Safety first."

She powered up the craft and waited for the door to open. It didn't open. She looked back at Drok'ti. He was sitting on the cot with his arms crossed and his head turned the other way.

"Fine! Be that way!"

Strife looked at the button to open the drop door. The door started to open. Strife watched as Drok'ti snapped his head to look at her. She blew a raspberry and piloted the craft out of the ship. She set the coordinates for earth and sat there staring out into space, literally.

A few days later Strife was back at home. As usual her parents were out of town again. She hid the craft in the backyard shed. She thought it was a brilliant idea since the only people that go in there are her and Zaz. Her to look around and Zaz to hunt for mice. Strife laid on her bed for a while staring at the ceiling.

"At least I don't have to be in space anymore. It was boring out there, nothing but stars to look at most of the time. I don't need that life anymore. Now I have my nice comfy bed, my clothes, my pillows and best of all my shower!"

Strife got up and grabbed some clean clothes. Once again, it had been a while since she had taken one. She went into the bathroom and shut the door, then started peeling her clothes off her skin.

"Yuck."

She washed her hair 3 times before she got it totally clean and goo free. Where she picked up this much stuff was a mystery to her.


	19. Chapter 19

Drok'ti was still wondering how Strife had managed to get that door open from where she was. Maybe her evolution did something weird to her. She had always been able to make things happen, but not like that. It was more luck related, at least that's what Drok'ti chalked it up to. He wanted to know why it was her that had saved him, why not someone else, someone that would have just sent him on his way when he was better, someone that didn't always seem to show up, someone that didn't have to be so admirable and someone he wouldn't have been attracted to. His fire for her still burned as hot as ever, but he could never stay with her. She was an ooman and he was a Yautja. All the Yautja that had ever grown to love an ooman were persecuted and cast out. It wasn't right in his mind. Then why did he have those feelings for her? Why was she so damned likable?

He snorted and looked at his trophy wall. He decided he was just going to forget about Strife and get on with life the way he was supposed to live it. No more traveling around with a weak little ooman female. He is a warrior, not a suckling-sitter. There was a knock on the door and Drok'ti was startled out of his thoughts. He stood up and opened the door. His brother was standing there. Drok'ti put his hand on his brother's shoulder to greet him. His brother returned the gesture.

"Welcome back."

"Thank you. How is our sire?"

"He's pleased that you have finally returned. We were wondering when we would see you again."

"Yeah."

"So what took you so long to return? And how did you get captured?"

"It's a long story, you don't want to hear it."

"I asked, didn't I? Have you done something to ruin your honor?"

"No, at least I don't think I did. I didn't break any rules."

"Then you can tell me. I swear it wont go any further than me."

"I suppose so."

Drok'ti sat down in his favorite chair again and looked at his brother. He wasn't sure how to start at first. It was a very long story and he needed to be careful just how much he told his brother. He didn't want to provoke the wrath of anyone, let alone his own flesh and blood.

"It started when I went to earth for the hunt before my last. I was attacked by that bad blood, but I was injured far worse than I let anyone know. My self destruct was damaged beyond use. I crawled my way into the first shelter I could find and laid there either waiting to die or waiting to get the strength to move on."

"Why did you not tell out sire about that?"

"Because of what happened next. While I was unconscious a young ooman female found me. She mended my wounds and watched over all night. She even aided me in killing the bad blood."

"An ooman helped you?"

"Yes. I left in a hurry and realized too late I had left my knife in her dwelling. That is why I returned so soon after my last hunt."

"I knew something strange was going on."

Drok'ti nodded and looked at the wall.

"I got back and. . .I acted dishonorably towards her. I frightened her and because of her contact with me she was taken by the ooman government. They were questioning her about where I was, but she never told them anything. She never betrayed anything to them. I managed to save her from them, but they had cut her eyes out and she was bleeding to death. I had to take her onto the ship to save her life. Then the government men found the ship, so I was forced to leave earth with her on the ship."

"Why would they do that to her?"

"Oomans are cruel to everything, especially each other."

"So was she all right?"

"Yes she was fine. She was left completely helpless though, so I couldn't just leave her there. I had a feeling the government men would find her and kill her."

Drok'ti recounted most of the story, but left out some details like the parts about his feelings for her and the closeness they had. He was so glad that he didn't have those for her anymore. He could find a mate here, have a few sucklings and they could grow to be mighty warriors, just like him. His brother listened intently. Drok'ti realized that he had been very mean to Strife. He couldn't do anything about it now, so why worry about it? Because Strife had feelings just as he did and he hurt hers. Those last few days, the way he treated her after everything she had done to help him and to save him was regrettable, but what could he do about it? Not a thing.

Drok'ti finally finished the story and looked back at his brother. His brother seemed empathetic towards Strife.

"So you think she got back to earth all right?"

"I don't' know. Probably. She always seemed to know what to do."

"I think you admire her."

"What?"

"At least a part of you does. Come on, such a small weak being doing all those things must strike a small admiration for her in your mind."

"I suppose. Oh well. It's all over now. I'm here and she's wherever she is."

"Maybe one day you'll be able to cope with your feelings for her."

There seemed to be a deeper meaning in his brother's words and Drok'ti didn't know how to react. He wasn't going to give anything away, not now. Perhaps in a hundred years or so he could look back at this and admit how he felt to his brother or his young. That was a while though, so he had plenty of time to shut his emotions up and try to forget about them. His brother stood and Dtok'ti stood with him.

"Well, I should get back home Ti'mara was expecting me back a while ago."

"Talk to you later."

"Bye."

His brother walked out the door and Drok'ti was left to dwell on his thoughts. He worried about Strife, hoped she was ok. He snorted and put his thoughts of her out of his head. He has things to do. Hunts to complete. Now that he didn't have Strife around to mess things up, he could do what he had been born and raised and trained to do. But how many things did Strife really mess up? He couldn't really think of any examples. She had always been helpful in most every situation. Her strong will was what angered him. She had too much spirit for an ooman. Oomans are supposed to obey the Yautja because they are superior. Drok'ti stood there for a few minutes. Who was really superior? Strife put up with Drok'ti without any complaint, yet Drok'ti was the one that walked away from everything. He couldn't deal with it so he ran away.

"Enough of this."

He decided he was going to spend the next day repairing his weapons and planning his next hunt. That would take his mind off past events. For now he was going to sleep.


	20. Chapter 20

Strife was all clean and clothed again. She was pacing around her house thinking hard. What should she do with her new powers? How was she going to learn to control them? She flopped down on the couch and removed her goggles for a moment. She rubbed her eye sockets and replaced the goggles.

"How does one learn to control new found immense powers? They test them on inanimate objects of course!"

Strife sat up and stared at the TV remote. It started to levitate. She started twirling it around with her mind.

"Ok, so I've got that under control. What else?"

She turned her head around and looked down at her back.

"Wow, my neck is all flexible now. Yay!"

Her wings suddenly popped out of her back and spread out. She tried flapping them one at a time.

"This is a lot harder than it should be."

A while later she finally got the motion down and moved them separately.

"Yay! Go me!"

She heard a noise on her front porch and pulled her wings into her back again. She ran to the door and opened it before the man had a chance to knock. He seemed startled.

"What do you want?"

Strife checked out his clothing. He wasn't wearing a dark grey suit, no sunglasses, no tie. He was dressed in baggy pants and a black wife beater. His hair was shaggy and black. Strife calmed down a little and looked at the guys face.

"Hi, um. . .ha ha, I just moved in across the street and I'm going around meeting my new neighbors."

"Oh."

He stuck his hand out and Strife didn't immediately know what to do. She remembered and put her hand in his.

"My name is Gabriel."

"I'm Strife."

"Strife. That's a really awesome name."

"Thanks. I like the name Gabriel. As long as it isn't shortened to Gabe."

Strife wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out.

"Yuck."

Gabriel laughed.

"That's really funny, I usually punch people in the face when they call me Gabe."

Strife half smiled and yawned.

"I like your goggles by the way."

"Thanks."

"They make you look sort of bug eyed."

Strife was getting a little creeped out. Is he reading her mind or something? If he is then he'll know that she doesn't have eyes and that's why she has to wear the goggles.

"Well, I guess I should get going, I have a lot of other people to meet."

"Ok. Later dude."

"Bye."

Strife shut the door.

"Phew, ok, he wasn't reading my mind. That would be silly anyway, I'm the one that's supposed to read minds."

She looked at Zaz and tried to listen to his thoughts. There was nothing but dead air.

"Zazzy."

He looked at her. 'what now?'

Strife gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

"I can read your mind."

Zaz yawned. 'that's nice. Feed me then.'

"You have food."

'Since when?'

"Since I fed you when we got home, duh."

Zaz got up and walked over to his food bowl. He started eating. Strife shook her head and sighed.

"Some cats."

'whatever.'

Strife went into her room and pulled out her electronic notepad. She was wondering if Drok'ti would ever send her a message saying he was sorry. She somehow doubted that. She had enough of his butthead attitude. She suddenly remembered when he had been really nice, overly nice. More than just friendly. What happened to suddenly turn him into such an ass hole?

"He's bipolar, that's what it is."

She said this to Zaz who was sitting on the edge of the couch cleaning himself. Zaz just looked at her for a moment and then went back to his duty. Strife felt like going for a nice flight. She walked out of the house and started down the street. She saw Gabriel in his driveway pulling a large TV out of the back of a truck. Strife walked over to him. The flight could wait a few minutes.

"Need some help?"

"Um, sure. You could grab that box right there, you should be able to lift it, it's not very heavy."

Strife huffed and grabbed one of the bigger boxes.

"Be careful with that."

Strife lifted it up easily and started carrying it inside. Gabriel was right behind her.

"Where do you want this?"

"Over in that corner is fine."

Strife carried the box over and set it down in the corner.

"You're a lot stronger than you look."

Strife nodded and laughed to herself in her head. She was stronger than he was or would be for another few million years. Maybe she shouldn't let people know. She heard the sound of a lab in her head and realized someone would have no problem with cutting her open to see what was different about her.

"Well, um. . .I'm-going-for-a-walk-now-bye."

Strife skipped out of Gabriel's house and down the street. She ended up on the edge of the woods and looked around. She walked in and went to a clearing. She let her wings out and started flapping them and running. She got up into the air and smiled down at the ground. She should stay out of the populated areas. Someone might mistake her for a goose and shoot her or something. Strife giggled and flew off towards the lake. She got there and flew straight down into the water. She was having a merry old time splashing and swimming around when she heard someone yell. She stopped splashing and looked in the direction the yell came from. She heard a gunshot and started swimming towards the noise.

Curiosity might get her killed someday, but if she didn't investigate she would miss out on something and her life would be really boring. She crawled out of the water and ran towards the old abandoned mill. It had been shut down when lots of creepy things started happening there. Strife didn't know exactly what, but she had heard some stories that people were seen walking through walls and falling through the floor. She had always wondered if maybe there had been holes in the walls and floors, but she never wanted to know that much. That wasn't as interesting as Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Velcro.

She jumped over the fence and made her way to one of the buildings. She crawled up the wall and crouched on the windowsill. She looked down and saw a man walking around all crazy like. He had a gun in his hand. Strife listened to what he was saying to the man he had tied to a chair. Strife felt for the captive. She remembered the time when she was in that position with the FBI douche bag. When she lost her eyes.

"What have I told you before about coming around here? This is our turf, not yours."

Strife cocked her head to the side and wrinkled her nose. Turf? Maybe this is a gang thing?

"All you have to do is stick to your place and we'll stay in ours. Was that so hard? Now you have to die because you didn't follow a simple rule. Well, goodbye."

The man pointed his gun at the other man's head. Strife frowned and concentrated on the gun. She used her telekinesis to rip the gun out of the man's hand and fling it out the window. The man was looking around very confused.

"What the fuck is going on?"

Strife looked up at the crane that was hanging from the ceiling. She made it drop down and catch hold of the man's jacket in the back. The man was screaming and cussing and writhing around. Strife made the crane go back up and left the man hanging there.

"That'll teach him to tie people to chairs."

Strife crawled down the wall and walked over to the man that was tied to the chair. She felt around in her pockets for something to cut the ropes with. Then she got the idea just to use her claws. She sliced the rope and unwrapped it from the man's hand. He got up and started to say,

"Man am I glad you guys got. . . .here. . .who are you?"

"That's not really important. We'll just say I was in the neighborhood."

Strife smiled at the man.

"Well, peace out!"

She ran to the wall and climbed up, then out the window and ran across the field, hopped the fence and headed home. That was enough excitement for her for the day. She was at the end of her street when she thought of something.

"I could be a super hero! Strife the avenger! Hah hah. That's funny."

She got to her house and felt eyes on her. She turned around and saw Gabriel sitting on his front porch smoking. He smiled and waved. Strife waved back and stared at him for a second trying to pry into his head. 'Damn she's hot. I'm glad I moved into this neighborhood.' Strife did an about face and walked mechanically into her house. She closed the door and locked it. As she walked to her couch she looked like an android with a short circuit. She flopped down and grabbed her head.

"I didn't want to hear that! Why couldn't he have been thinking what everyone else does when they see me?"

Strife furrowed her eye brows and realized she didn't know what other people actually thought when they saw her. She could find out now if she wanted to. Strife went to the fridge and stood there staring into it for a long time. She closed it and shlunked down to the floor.

"There's no food."

She rolled herself across the floor to one of the cupboards and opened it.

"Cereal? How am I supposed to eat cereal with no milk?"

She rolled herself over to the next cupboard to look inside.

"And how am I supposed to make anything without food?"

She sighed and stood up.

"To the store!"

Strife got up and started frolicking into her room. Her clothes were still damp and it was getting dark outside. She changed her clothes and got her shoes on. She grabbed her backpack and took everything out and put it where it belonged. She put it on her back and went into her parent's room. She went to the safe and started turning the dial. She knew the combination very well, but she had more fun randomly spinning it. The lock popped open and Strife grabbed the stack of cash her parent's kept in it. She took out 100 dollars in 10's and put the stack back. There was over 5 thousand dollars in this safe as she had found out one day when she decided to count the money. That was 6 years ago. She knew her parents put at least a hundred dollars in it every month. So who knows how much money is in there now?

"Probably my parents have sort of a clue."

She looked in the corner and saw her birth certificate. She pulled it out. She looked at her mother's signature and the doctors signature. Her father had refused to sign it because he didn't want a daughter.

"Yeah, I was a real disappointment for him."

She folded it back up and put it exactly where it had been. She closed and locked the safe and got off the floor. She put the money in her pocket and walked towards the front door.

"Another exciting trip to the store! Wee!"

She walked out her front door and Gabriel was still sitting there, but he wasn't alone. There was another two guys sitting with him. Strife decided to pretend they weren't there. She has a mission. It was nothing like the missions she had gone on with Drok'ti, but it was a mission nonetheless. She couldn't kill anyone if they got in her way. She couldn't really hit anyone. That was battery and she could get arrested for it. They would probably just dismiss the case because she's a nutcase, but then they would probable see her as a danger to society and put her in a loony bin. Strife thought about that for a moment.

"It would be a nice reprieve. A little vacation in a nice padded room, 3 meals a day and all the prescription medication I could take! But no Zaz and no flying around."

She decided it would be best to just steer clear of the loony bins. Strife started humming and skipping down the street towards the store.


	21. Chapter 21

Drok'ti was glad he decided to come to this city. He had already gotten 4 trophies and at that time he hadn't been here for more than half an hour. He also knew that he wouldn't see Strife here if she had ever made it back to earth. He had a feeling she did. For some reason things always worked out for her. It was so strange.

Drok'ti stopped thinking about her and went back to watching the man he was hunting. This man was fairly large for a human. He was about 6'5" with broad shoulders and lots of muscles. Drok'ti had been watching this man for about 20 minutes now. The man had a knife on him, but he hadn't done anything to make him worthy prey in Drok'ti's eyes. His mind started wandering back to Strife and her lack of eyes. So many weird things had happened with her around. She had lost her eyes, but gotten back her sight, she had managed to destroy 3 spaceships all on her own with only a few bruises and now she was some sort of mutated creature with wings and a tail. Drok'ti thought he had seen it all until he met her. That was one of his quirks. He thought he knew everything about everything. Then he realized he knew little about a lot that didn't matter.

He thought he knew all there was to know about oomans, or at least all he needed to know. They were crafty, malicious, and had no honor. Strife changed his whole point of view. Oomans could have honor, they also had a lot of luck. Strife seemed to have all the luck in the universe. She should have died many a time and if she was anyone else she most likely would have. It was for that reason and many others that Drok'ti thought of her as special. She was different from anyone. She seemed to be happy most of the time, smiling often. Maybe too much. Drok'ti growled. He smacked his forehead.

"Stop thinking about her!"

He concentrated, on the ooman male he was hunting, again. He had turned down an alley. Drok'ti watched him from the top of the building. The man stopped and leaned against the wall and pulled something out. He put it in his mouth and then put fire to the end of it. Drok'ti snorted. He didn't know what was going on, he didn't really care either. He was bored and wanted to fight this ooman. Drok'ti caught himself willing the ooman to do something to provoke an attack. Nothing happened for another few minutes until a woman started walking down the alley. The man looked at her and then back down at the ground. Drok'ti growled quietly and started tapping his foot. Another bad habit he picked up from Strife.

She had done that often when she was waiting for something, Drok'ti thought that she did it without really even thinking about it. Another one of her bad habits was that humming and whistling she did all too often. Drok'ti remembered sometimes wanting to sew her lips together just to get her to stop whistling. He didn't think she had the lung power to do that so much. He at least thought her mouth would get tired. Of course, Drok'ti couldn't whistle, maybe he was just jealous of her ability that he lacked.

The man was moving now. He ran up behind the woman and tackled her. Drok'ti tensed, ready to attack. The man took the knife out and put it to the woman's throat. Drok'ti was going to make his move now. He jumped off the side of the building and landed a couple yards from the man. As Drok'ti landed the man looked up and around. He couldn't see him. Drok'to growled a threat. The man stood up and held his knife out in front of him. The woman got up and ran down the alley. Drok'ti started circling the man. He turned his cloak off and roared at the man.

"What the fuck are you?"

The man ran at Drok'ti and swiped at him with the knife. The knife grazed Drok'ti's shoulder and he let out a laugh. This hunt was going very well so far.

The man swiped at Drok'ti again only lower. The knife grazed his side this time. Drok'ti threw a punch and it knocked the man against the wall. He was after Drok'ti again in a second.

The fight went on for about 20 minutes until the man was finally too tired to fight back and Drok'ti made the killing blow. He was now carrying the man's body back to his ship. After cleaning the skull and putting it on the wall Drok'ti stood back admiring it. He looked at the Kiande Amedha head he had taken as a trophy during his rite of passage.

His eyes moved to the hulking skull of the first Tergra he had killed. It was a dragon like creature that lived on a mountainous planet near Lau'thalus. He had been fighting with that thing for a day until he finally got an opening to kill it. Those things were smart, strong and mean. It had smashed his shoulder cannon with the first blow of its tail. That had left Drok'ti in a bad place. He had to get in close to the beast to fight it and that was harder than it sounds. The only weak place in their hard armor like skin is right where it's neck meets it's head. It isn't the easiest place to get to when it's swinging its tail around and trying to get you with it's sharp teeth at the same time. Drok'ti had felt very proud when he showed that skull to his sire and his sire had been filled with pride for his son.

Drok'ti stood there and stared at the wall for a while. He had never shown Strife his trophies. Why was that? They were his most prized possessions. Was he worried that she would have been disappointed that he had killed so many creatures and people? Strife was the one that killed the bad blood, she was the one that destroyed those mercenary ships and killed all the people on them without a second thought. She was just as bloodthirsty and ready for a fight as Drok'ti was. Drok'ti had watched her behead Alvorus and kick his skull across the docking bay. She would have probably thought his trophies were 'cool'. Drok'ti suddenly felt regret ball up in his stomach. He should have showed her his trophies, he should have shared them with her, and he should have treated her better. He should have put his damnable pride aside and listened to her. As hard as it would have been for him to do that, he should have tried for her. He has find her and tell her that he is sorry for everything he did to make her sad.

Drok'ti realized the feeling that he had for Strife was more than just admiration. He loves her. Over the last few weeks he had been very mean to her. Especially on the day she left. That is why she is gone, Drok'ti reminded himself. Why did he say those things to her? Why didn't he say what he felt instead of what he thought he should say? He was such an idiot. What would Strife do if she saw him again? She would probably tell him to get away from her. He deserved that for what he's put her through. What if he had stayed there and watched her evolve? It couldn't have hurt. He was now wondering what became of that. Did she even look like an ooman anymore or was she totally different? What about those wings?

He remembered that dream he had about seeing Strife flying around. Maybe that dream did have some reality to it. That heat pattern was so strange, mystifying, beautiful. She undoubtedly had powers that he didn't know about. Why couldn't he have stayed and learned what they were. Why didn't he wait and take her home with him? He wouldn't be sitting here now alone. He would have someone, he would have Strife.

He decided to just avoid her for the time being until he could think of what to say to her. Maybe he could make things better, maybe he could get her back and win her love somehow. This might take him a while. If he failed he would feel terrible, but if he didn't try he would feel worse. He just has to let Strife know how he feels. That is the least he could do for her.


	22. Chapter 22

Strife was in a bad situation. She was standing in the chip aisle. She couldn't decide whether to get Smartfood popcorn or Cheetos. She put her hand over her goggle lenses and spun around in a circle and then pointed.

"Mmm popcorn."

She grabbed the bag of popcorn and carried it on her head. She trotted to the refrigerated section and grabbed a gallon of milk. After getting a few more things she went to the checkout counter and put her stuff down. The lady looked at her disapprovingly. Strife got an idea. She tried to read the ladies thoughts.

'This girl again. Why is she always so happy? Always skipping around. She's insane, I know it. I've heard rumors and I wholeheartedly believe them. Why is she looking at me like that? Is she even looking at me? I can't tell because of those creepy goggles.'

Strife stopped reading the lady's thoughts and handed her some money. The woman bagged the groceries and handed Strife her change.

"Thank you have a nice day." 'Oh I wish she would go to a different store.'

"You have a nice day too. And if there was another store to go to I would most definitely go there."

The woman's jaw dropped and Strife giggled. Ahh the perks of being able to read minds. Strife liked this a lot. She walked out of the store and headed back home.

"Time for food!"

She walked in her house quickly before Gabriel had a chance to stop her and went to the job of putting things away.

Over a sandwich and a glass of black cherry Koolaid Strife read the newspaper. Apparently there had been a 'shooting star' the night prior. Strife laughed.

"Nope, it was just me coming home idiots."

Strife started reading the comics. She saw one by her favorite comic author, Lynx. Lynx always drew really weird comics. Most of them she or someone else ended up getting blown up or eviscerated. In this one she was having a very deep conversation with a skull. Strife laughed and cut that one out. She was going to add it to her collection.

A few months later Strife was laying on her bed with her head hanging off the side and her feet up in the air. She was rocking back and forth being sort of bored, but not having anything to do about it. Gabriel had told her she could stop by whenever she wanted to, and she did on occasion, but this wasn't one of those occasions. She wanted to see Drok'ti.

"Stupid love and stupid attraction and stupid emotions and stupid. . .stupid."

She flipped herself backwards and landed on her feet. She started walking around her room in circles. She did this for about ten minutes. There was a knock on her door. She and Zaz both growled. She walked out of her room and opened the door. Gabriel was standing at the door.

"Hey Strife. What are you doing?"

"Um. . .nothing."

"I was wondering if you had a few minutes."

"Are you going to try to kill me?"

Gabriel laughed.

"Only on Thursdays, remember."

"Right. Of course. And it's only Monday."

"You have another 3 more days."

"Right on. Come on in."

Gabriel walked over and sat on the couch. He ran his fingers through his hair and looked at Strife. Strife felt a strange sense of foreboding.

"I saw you flying around the lake last Wednesday."

Strife didn't move. She wasn't necessarily frozen, but she didn't know how to react. She started giggling.

"Must have been a weird dream for you to have."

Gabriel smiled and shook his head.

"I'm serious Strife. I was awake. I was walking through the edge of the woods by the lake and I saw you."

"Oh fuck. Here comes doom. I'm going to get hacked to pieces and put back together."

"Strife, I'm not going to tell anyone. I just want you to know that you can tell me these things. I also know that you don't actually have eyes. That's why you wear those goggles."

"How do you know all that?"

"Well, I'm not exactly human."

"What are you?"

"I'm sort of a demonic creature."

"Really?"

"Yep. I'm not from hell, but a different dimension."

"So why are you here then?"

"I don't know. I needed a break from all the craziness that happened there. I wanted to try being human for a little while."

Strife looked him over. She realized he wasn't lying.

"So I have a demonic creature from a different dimension living across the street from me. Hmm. Interesting."

"You going to tell anyone?"

"Your secret is safe with me!"

"Thanks. I thought that's what you would say, but I wasn't for sure. I might have had to go back if you decided to go ranting and raving about your demon neighbor."

"I don't rant and rave."

"Good, neither do I."

They sat there and talked about all their adventures. Strife didn't tell Gabriel who or what she had them with, but told him what she had done. After a while Gabriel went home and Strife went back to her room. She flopped onto the bed and sighed.

"I miss him so much."

Strife stared at the ceiling for a long time thinking about Drok'ti. She hadn't been spying on him anymore. She felt she owed him his privacy now that he hated her. There was a strange noise outside of her window. She opened it and looked around. She didn't see anything. She heard the noise again and turned her head. She saw something fuzzy.

She scrambled onto the windowsill as fast as she could and dove onto the fuzzy thing. She was caught in two strong arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him.

"Oh my god you butthead! I thought I would never see you again."

Strife jumped off him and looked up at him.

"You came back."

"I came back for you."

Strife felt tears welling up in her eye sockets. She wrapped her arms around Drok'ti's waist and smashed her face into his ribcage.

"Follow me."

Strife followed Drok'ti through the woods to the clearing she used to get up into the air. She followed him into a large fuzzy thing. Strife realized this must be the ship. She got inside and knew she was right. It was so familiar to her. Drok'ti uncloaked and looked at her. She smiled at him. She was so happy to see him. The wall started to open up and Strife looked at it. The open panel revealed a collection of skulls. Strife ran her hand over the biggest one.

"Are all these yours?"

"Yes."

"Wow."

"I have more at home. Maybe you would like to go with me to see those?"

Strife looked at Drok'ti and smiled.

"Of course. I would go anywhere with you."

Strife was enveloped in Drok'it's arms. He lifted her up and hugged her to him.

"I love you Strife."

Strife laid her head on his shoulder and took a deep breath.

"I love you too Drok'ti."

End.


	23. Epilogue

Strife and Drok'ti made it to Lau'thalus. Drok'ti's sire was disappointed at first, but as soon as he saw Strife's wings and learned that she could read minds and use her mind to move things he got over his anger and developed a fascination with her. Drok'ti's brother wasn't surprised at all about Drok'ti's decision to spend his life with Strife and accepted her right away.

Strife was finally with people that cared about her and didn't judge her before they got to know her. A few challenges were issued to her, but all she had to do was give it some thought and she sent the Yautjas flying and spinning in the air until they got dizzy. They tended to leave her alone after that.

Strife could fly around all she wanted to, hang from trees with her tail. If she didn't want to she didn't have to wear her goggles. Usually she did want to though because she still found them highly fashionable.

Drok'ti didn't feel alone anymore. He had found what hunts had never gained him. He had someone to love and have as his own.

They were all happy. Oh and Zaz seemed to like Lau'thalus. After a brief stop on that strange evolution inducing planet he was bigger than Strife and quite a sight to behold. He was allowed to roam the jungles of the planet and could live up to the name of a 'cat'. No one seemed to have a problem with him walking around town. He never bothered anyone. He was always a little stuck up when it came to socializing with people that weren't Strife.

Gabriel ended up leaving earth's dimension and going on adventures of his own. He planned to visit Strife someday. There would be time for that later.

So this is the end of the story. Hope you've enjoyed it and I will be writing more stories soon.


End file.
